OCEAN CITY, Md. — A
Maryland man seen tackling a federally protected pelican on video has been
arrested on animal cruelty charges out of Florida.
Maryland State Police said in a Friday
release that 31-year-old William Hunter Hardesty was arrested at a hotel in
Ocean City, Maryland. News outlets report the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission investigated the video of Hardesty trying to capture a
brown pelican at Florida's Key West Historic Seaport. The video was taken March
5 and posted on his Facebook page March 8.
Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward
told The Miami Herald the charges amount to five misdemeanors. Hardesty is
being held as a fugitive in the Worcester County Detention Center, awaiting
extradition to Florida.
Maryland State Police at the Berlin Barrack were tipped off
Friday morning by “concerned citizens” who told police they believed the
individual in the video was staying at an Ocean City hotel and had been
bragging to them about being wanted for feeding and tackling a pelican in the
Florida Keys, according to police.
After the video went viral, Hardesty had continued to post about
the pelican incident on social media, including a link to a GoFundMe campaign
to raise $20,000 for himself. The campaign pledges to donate half of the funds
to the Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center, but does not specify what
the remaining $10,000 would be used for.
On March 10, he posted “I’m so hungry I could eat a pelican!!”
on Facebook. And on Wednesday he wrote “Thinking about gettin a pillican [sic]
tattoo today,” followed by two smiling face emojis with horns.
Maryland troopers arrested Hardesty without incident soon after
9 a.m. Friday morning at a hotel in the 12000-block of Ocean Gateway, in Ocean
City. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Florida has been notified of the
arrest and is initiating extradition proceedings, according to police.
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