Investigating claims that RFK Jr. cut off the head of a dead whale

Environmentalists are calling for an investigation into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s historic claim that he once used a chainsaw to cut off the head of a beached whale and then brought it home on the roof of his car.

A group supporting Kamala Harris for president believes that Kennedy may have violated the law by allegedly removing and transporting the whale skull.

Mr Kennedy, 70, has not commented on the incident, which his daughter described in detail in an interview 12 years ago.

The call for an investigation comes days after he suspended his independent presidential campaign, which has been marked by strange twists and turns, including his confession that he once dumped the carcass of a dead bear in New York's Central Park.

Mr Kennedy is now supporting Donald Trump for president and has been offered a place on the Republican candidate's transition team if he is elected.

The whale head incident, which occurred around 1994, was described by Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy in a 2012 interview with Town & Country magazine.

Mr Kennedy, who reportedly enjoys studying animal skulls and skeletons, is said to have heard that the dead animal had washed up in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, where the family was staying.

He went to the beach to cut off the head with a chainsaw, then tied it with bungee cords to the roof of the family minivan. The family then drove back to their home in New York, Ms. Kennedy said.

“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would run into the car windows and it was the most disgusting thing in the world,” Mrs. Kennedy told the magazine.

“We all had plastic bags over our heads with holes cut out for our mouths, and people gave us the middle finger on the highway, but that was just normal everyday life for us.”

The call for an investigation came from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, which publicly supports Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The group outlined its position in a letter to marine conservation officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The BBC has asked NOAA for comment.

The letter, quoted by US media, states that Kennedy may have violated several federal laws by collecting wild animal body parts and transporting them across state lines.

“Important research opportunities are lost when individuals loot wildlife carcasses, hindering the work of scientists,” wrote the group's policy director, Brett Hartl.

“This is especially true for marine mammals, which are among the most difficult wildlife species in the world to study,” added Mr Hartl.

Noaa has not yet publicly confirmed receipt of the letter or made any comment, nor has Mr Kennedy. The BBC has asked his campaign team for comment.

Earlier this year, Kennedy was averaging about 15% in presidential polls as an independent candidate.

In his lecture, he mixed anti-establishment and anti-corporate rhetoric with liberal social positions, environmental protection and controversial vaccine skepticism.

But his vote count dropped, and last week he announced he was suspending his campaign.

Although he initially fought for the Democratic nomination, he ended up criticizing his former party and offering his support to Donald Trump, a move that dismayed his relatives, the most famous family in Democratic politics.

Kennedy's election campaign produced a number of bizarre and scandalous headlines.

In May, the New York Times published an article saying he told lawyers in his 2012 divorce case that he was suffering from a memory impairment caused by a dead brain parasite.

In mid-July, Kennedy apologized to a former nanny via text message after Vanity Fair magazine published an article in which she accused him of unwelcome sexual advances. “I have no recollection of this incident, but I sincerely apologize for anything I did that made you uncomfortable,” he wrote.

In comments to the media, he said the Vanity Fair article contained a lot of “garbage,” but acknowledged that he had had a “very, very wild youth” and that he was “not a church boy.”

Earlier this month, Kennedy was filmed speaking to actress Roseanne Barr and telling her about the 2014 incident involving the dead bear cub.

He said a woman killed the bear with her car as it drove through a rural area and he put it in his pickup truck with the original intention of harvesting its meat.

But he eventually thought it would be “funny” to leave the carcass in New York's Central Park to make it look like a lost cyclist had killed the animal. The bear was found the next day.

In response to a request from the BBC for comment, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation said it could not bring charges for incidents that occurred more than a year ago.