Environmental group calls for investigation into dead whale incident involving RFK Jr.

CNN
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An environmental group is calling for an investigation into Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in connection with a recently resurfaced incident in which he cut off the head of a whale carcass that washed ashore near his home. The incident was recounted by his daughter and is the latest in a series of revealing anecdotes that shed light on his bizarre personal life.

The most recent story, told by Kennedy's daughter, Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, in a 2012 interview with Town & Country Magazine, describes how Kennedy once used a chainsaw to cut off the head of a dead whale carcass that had washed up on the shore of her family's home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and then transported the whale's head on the roof of the family's minivan to their home in New York.

“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would run against the windows, which was the most disgusting thing in the world,” Kick Kennedy told the magazine. “We all had plastic bags over our heads with holes cut in them for our mouths, and people on the highway would give us the middle finger, but that was just normal everyday life for us.”

The story apparently resurfaced on social media after tabloids reported last week about a romantic link between Kick Kennedy and actor Ben Affleck.

In response to the story's re-circulation, the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund — an environmental group that supports Vice President Kamala Harris for president — wrote a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NASDAQ: NAMA), urging the government agency to launch an investigation to determine whether Kennedy violated federal wildlife protection laws and explaining why it believes Kennedy's actions may have jeopardized scientific research.

“There are good reasons why it is illegal to collect or preserve parts of an endangered species,” Brett Hartl, national policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, wrote in the letter. “Most importantly, important research opportunities are lost when individuals pick up a wild animal carcass and hamper the work of scientists. This is especially true for marine mammals, which are some of the most difficult wildlife species in the world to study.”

CNN has contacted NOAA and Kennedy for comment.

Kennedy suspended his independent bid for the White House on Friday and endorsed former President Donald Trump after failing to outdo Trump or Harris in recent weeks. Kennedy has said he plans to “actively campaign” for Trump. On Tuesday, a Trump campaign spokesman confirmed that Kennedy had joined Trump's transition team.

The whale incident is the latest in a series of reports about Kennedy's personal life that have made national headlines and hampered his campaign. In May, he confirmed that a parasitic worm crawled into his brain and died in 2010, causing him health problems. Weeks later, in a Vanity Fair article, he denied allegations that he had previously eaten a dog and dodged accusations of sexual harassment from a former nanny. And earlier this month, he admitted to dumping a dead bear carcass in New York's Central Park in 2014, an incident that attracted international media attention at the time.