Dead whale incident involving RFK Jr. prompts calls for investigation from environmental group

An environmental group is calling for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be investigated over a recently resurfaced incident described by his daughter in which he beheaded a whale carcass that had washed ashore near his home, the latest in a series of revealing anecdotes highlighting his bizarre personal life.

The latest story, shared by Kennedy’s daughter Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy in a 2012 interview with Town & Country Magazine, details how Kennedy once used a chainsaw to cut off the head of a dead whale carcass that had washed up on the shores of their family’s home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He then drove the whale’s head back to their home in New York on the roof of the family’s minivan.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,” Kick Kennedy told the magazine. “We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us.”

The story appeared to resurface on social media following tabloid reports last week romantically linking Kick Kennedy with actor Ben Affleck.

In response to the story being recirculated, the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, an environmental conservation group that has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, wrote a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and called for the government agency to open an investigation into whether Kennedy violated federal laws protecting wildlife and explained why it believes Kennedy’s actions could have jeopardized scientific research.

“There are good reasons why it is illegal for any person to collect or keep parts of any endangered species,” Brett Hartl, national political director for the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, wrote in the letter. “Most importantly, vital research opportunities are lost when individuals scavenge a wildlife carcass and interfere with the work of scientists. This is particularly true of marine mammals, which are some of the most difficult wildlife species in the world to study.”

CNN has reached out to NOAA and Kennedy for comment.

Kennedy suspended his independent White House bid and endorsed former President Donald Trump on Friday after he failed to make gains on Trump or Harris in recent weeks. Kennedy has said he plans to be “campaigning actively” for Trump. On Tuesday, a Trump campaign spokesperson confirmed Kennedy had joined the Trump transition team.

• America Votes: Latest U.S. election news and analysis from a Canadian perspective

The whale incident is the latest a string of reports detailing Kennedy’s personal life that drew national headlines and bogged down his campaign. In May, he confirmed that in 2010, a parasitic worm crawled into his brain and died, causing him some health problems. Weeks later, he denied allegations made in a Vanity Fair article that he had previously eaten a dog and sidestepped accusations of sexual assault levied by a former nanny. And earlier this month, he revealed he placed a dead bear carcass in Central Park in New York in 2014, an incident that drew international media attention at the time.