BEAUMONT, Texas — A Texas man has been sentenced to a year on probation for cutting an alligator's tail off two years ago.
Clarence Martin pleaded guilty and was sentenced, on Tuesday morning, Oct. 31, 2023, to 12 months on federal probation in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Beaumont.
(Editor's Note: The video above, from Oct. 2021, showing the injured alligator may be hard for some to watch.)
A 9.5 foot alligator was found on Oct. 12, 2021, alive, by Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Warden GW Brooks Yeates. The alligator was found with its tail cut off at the intersection of FM 2799, approximately 200-300 yards west of FM 1747.
This is a violation of both state and federal law according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The American alligator is currently listed as 'threatened' within the Endangered Species Act. Taking or killing it is a violation of federal law, unless authorized and done in accordance with state law. This includes possessing the necessary state hunting licenses and operating within the state guidelines, according to a document filed as part of the federal case against Martin.
Yeates noticed that the alligator had an apparent bullet hole on it's snout.
Investigators with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Game Wardens worked on the case.
With no leads or other information Yeates created an Operation Game Thief advertisement and distributed it on social media and related sources.
Within hours of the posting of the ad, Texas Parks and Wildlife received information that Martin was the person responsible for killing the alligator and removing its tail.
On October 16, 2021, Yeates, along with Justin Eddins and Morgan Inman interviewed Martin and his girlfriend at their home in Jasper.
Consent searches of their cell phones at that time showed text messages indicating that Martin had removed the alligator's tail. Blood was found in the trunk of Martin's vehicle after another consent search.
Martin admitted to the game wardens that he did kill the alligator by shooting it 10-12 times with a .22 pistol. He then removed its tail with a machete, which he later disposed of in a nearby river.
They arrested Martin on a charge of violating the Endangered Species Act on June 27, 2023.
He was specifically charged with 16 U.S.C 1538 (a)(1)(G) according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
After the mutilated gator was discovered in 2021, the owners of Gator Country in Beaumont, Gary and Shannon Saurage, publicized it on their Facebook page.
When a $1,000 reward was announced, they went on to announce that they would match the reward bringing it to $2,000.
Saurage explained at the time that he hunts and his family eats wild game all the time, but this is different.
"If you hunt it, kill it, no big deal. What you're going to see is unacceptable," Saurage said when he posted the video. "Watch this video. You're going to be outraged."
If you ever have any information about a crime such as this, you are asked to call Operation Game Thief at 1-800-792-(GAME)4263.