Graves Man Sentenced for Baiting Doves

As part of a plea agreement, a Graves County man on Thursday was sentenced to probation and fined for baiting and hunting mourning doves. 

United States Magistrate Judge Lanny King ordered 63-year-old Michael D. Cartwright of Sedalia to pay a $2,500 fine, and ordered that he not hunt migratory birds in the US for two years.

Cartwright pleaded guilty and was sentenced Thursday to two counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a federal wildlife statute that protects migratory birds and regulates the hunting of migratory game birds.

The investigation by a Kentucky conservation officer documented that millet and milo grass seed were present on the Cartwright farm late last summer in order to attract the birds. The seed had been disked into the soil, in the field used for an annual dove hunt.