Ex-San Diego Zoo Reptile Curator Fined for Rare Animal Trafficking
A former reptile curator at the San Diego Zoo was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $74,500 in fines for trafficking in rare and endangered animals.
The sentencing Thursday was handed down as part of a plea agreement reached last fall when Earl Thomas Schultz pleaded guilty to wire fraud and theft for the illegal trafficking in rare and endangered reptiles.
Schultz also was sentenced to a month in a halfway house and six months of home detention.
The case arose from a federal investigation of two Floridians, Tom Crutchfield and Adam Smith, who were convicted of reptile smuggling in 1997.
Crutchfield supplied the zoo with 300 animals from 1985 until 1992, when he was convicted of smuggling endangered animals into the United States. Zoo officials said they had severed ties with Crutchfield in 1992.
Schultz, however, continued dealing with Crutchfield, using his zoo position to supply Crutchfield with exotic animals for resale and for breeding, prosecutors said. Schultz also padded his expenses and received kickbacks from the Florida dealers for exotic animals they could sell on the black market.
None of the zoo’s acquisitions were illegal, but it is unclear if some of the animals were taken from the wild or were bred in captivity.
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