Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is once again under fire after his daughter claimed the failed presidential candidate chainsawed a whale’s head off during a family vacation in Massachusetts when she was 6.
RadarOnline.com can reveal RFK Jr.’s 36-year-old daughter Kathleen ‘Kick’ Kennedy – who has been linked to Ben Affleck amid his divorce from Jennifer Lopez – first recounted the tale during a 2012 interview.
She said at the time: “He ran down to the beach with a chainsaw, cut off the whale’s head and then bungee-corded it to the roof of the family minivan for the five-hour haul back to Mount Kisco, New York.
“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.
“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.”
Now, 30 years after the alleged incident and 12 years after Kick Kennedy first shared the story with Town & Country Magazine, RFK Jr. has faced backlash.
From environmental advocacy groups calling for an investigation into the 70-year-old over the matter.
Brett Hartl, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, called Kennedy an “environmental criminal” for allegedly cutting off a whale’s head in 1994. He also accused Kennedy of violating the Lacey Act with the suspected stunt.
Hartl wrote a letter to the NOAA after Kick Kennedy’s story resurfaced this week, saying: “Mr. Kennedy’s apparent transport of the marine mammal skull from Massachusetts to New York, and therefore across state lines, also represented a felony violation of the Lacey Act, one of the earliest wildlife conservation laws enacted by the United States in 1900.
“Normally, an unverified anecdote would not provide sufficient evidence as the basis for conducting an investigation. The bear story made it seem like this was normal behavior for him, so he may also possess additional illegally collected wildlife parts.”
The Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund also issued a letter to the NOAA on Monday. The group said it is illegal to possess “any part of an animal, dead or alive” under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act and echoed calls for a probe into Kennedy over the purported whale incident.
They wrote: “There are good reasons why it is illegal for any person to collect or keep parts of any endangered species.
“Given Mr. Kennedy’s reckless disregard for the two most important marine conservation laws in the United States, we ask that NOAA consider all appropriate civil and criminal penalties as well.”
As RadarOnline.com reported, this is at least the third time RFK Jr. has raised eyebrows regarding his behavior when it comes to animals.
In July, when the anti-vax conspiracy theorist was still running for the White House, a photo of Kennedy from 2010 surfaced showing him “reveling in animal cruelty” as he appeared to pose alongside the burnt remains of a dog.
Then, shortly before he suspended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, Kennedy admitted to dumping a dead bear in Central Park in 2014.
He said in a video posted to X on August 4: “I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was gonna skin the bear. It was in very good condition and I was gonna put the meat in my refrigerator.
“I had an old bike in my car that somebody had asked me to get rid of and I said, ‘Let’s go put the bear in Central Park and we’ll make it look like he got hit by a bike.’
“Everybody thought, ‘That’s a great idea.’ So we did that and we thought it would be amusing for whoever found it or something.”
As RadarOnline.com reported, the story about RFK Jr. and the whale’s head only resurfaced after his daughter Kick Kennedy was linked to Affleck, 52, in the wake of his split from J Lo, 55.
Although the Justice League actor was allegedly spotted with the 36-year-old Kennedy this past weekend, his spokesperson denied the romance rumors in a statement on Tuesday.
She said: “There is no truth to any of it. I don’t know if they even know each other.”
