https://news3lv.com/news/local...axidermy-rhino-mount


Las Vegas lawyer to pay $25,000 fine for selling taxidermy rhino mount

by Cody MillerSaturday, January 18th 2020



LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Jack Ely Buchanan, the 37-year-old defense attorney behind the Las Vegas firm Buchanan Defense Law, was ordered in federal court on Jan. 10 to pay a $25,000 fine for violating the Endangered Species Act.

Buchanan, who was also sentenced to two years of probation and 40 hours of community service, was found guilty of illegally selling a taxidermy mount of a rhinoceros.

The incident occurred in June of 2014 when, according to court documents, a prospective Minnesota buyer emailed Buchanan about purchasing the southern white rhinoceros half-mount.



Buchanan and the buyer negotiated and planned the sale of the mount for $6,500. At the same time, Buchanan inquired about the legality of the sale to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serve Division of Management Authority, which replied that the sale was prohibited since the mount “may be, including a transfer, donation, or exchange, only for noncommercial purposes.”

However, a week after Buchanan’s inquiry, the buyer arrived in Las Vegas, rented a moving truck and, with Buchanan, went to the lawyer’s residence and loaded the mount into the truck.

The rhino mount, made with real horns and hide, was then taken back to the buyer’s home in Minnesota.

Afterward, Buchanan sent a fraudulent Transfer of Ownership Note to the buyer, falsely characterizing the transaction as “not for purposes of sale, but an in-kind donation of property.”

Rhino horns mistakenly believed to hold medicinal value and also seen as a symbol of status and wealth, are in exceedingly high demand in southeast Asia, selling for as much as $25,000 per pound.



The horns form Buchanan’s mount could have sold for more than $435,000.

Illegal sales of rhino parts, like the one Buchanan engaged in, support the black market and can contribute to the illegal hunting of rhinos in the wild.

the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act are not that difficult to understand.... even for a lawyer.

So I wonder who gets the Rhino mount now...

What they ought to do with it is infuse the horn with a healthy dose of cyanide and put it on the black market. Same thing they should do with all confiscated rhino horn.

Unbelievable that a lawyer did this.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
Unbelievable that a lawyer did this.

Nah...there was money involved.

Not to mention a healthy dose of stupidity and greed. If, as a lawyer, you are told a certain act is illegal and you proceed with it anyway, you are much too stupid to practice law.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
Not to mention a healthy dose of stupidity and greed. If, as a lawyer, you are told a certain act is illegal and you proceed with it anyway, you are much too stupid to practice law.

nope
never too stupid to practice law

Shame. His dad, the late attorney Bucky Buchanan, actually shot the rhino on a legal hunt in South Africa approximately 15 years ago. Bucky had a huge African collection in his house here in Las Vegas, and upon his untimely death, his young trophy wife didn't want any of it and got rid of the trophies. Apparently the son got the rhino, among other things. That apparently lead to his greed and stupidity, and the rest is history.