John Waldrop, an orthopedic surgeon, amassed a vast collection of ornithological specimens as part of what he called an “obsessive hobby.” He’s now into wood carvings.
John Waldrop, an orthopedic surgeon, amassed a vast collection of ornithological specimens as part of what he called an “obsessive hobby.” He’s now into wood carvings.
John Waldrop, an orthopedic surgeon, amassed a vast collection of ornithological specimens as part of what he called an “obsessive hobby.” He’s now into wood carvings.
The roseate spoonbill is not native to New York. But on Wednesday, the tall, pink-winged creature appeared in Brooklyn federal court.
The Uruguayan bird, dead and stuffed, perched in front of prosecutors as its former owner, John Waldrop, was sentenced to three years of probation for illegally importing it along with hundreds of other items of taxidermy and thousands of eggs.
Mr. Waldrop, a Georgia orthopedic surgeon, was also ordered by Judge Rachel P. Kovner to pay a $900,000 fine for importing the mounted birds, many of which were rare.
For more than four years, Mr. Waldrop, with the help of his property’s caretaker, illegally imported hundreds of rare birds and eggs to adorn the interior of his lake house in Cataula, Ga. His makeshift museum featured roughly as many stuffed birds as there are people in Cataula, a town of around 1,400 outside Columbus.
Last August, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and violating the Endangered Species Act.
“My love for birds is extraordinary,” Mr. Waldrop, 76, told Judge Kovner on Wednesday, as he held back tears. “Even this event won’t diminish my love for them and the wild.”
Along with the roseate spoonbill, prosecutors displayed mounts of a Eurasian eagle-owl and an eastern imperial eagle that had been seized from Mr. Waldrop’s residence. The birds faced Judge Kovner as she read out Mr. Waldrop’s sentence.
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