Who’s laughing now? Man who jumped on pelican will likely face charges

Recently, a laughing man was caught on video jumping on a pelican in the water in Key West, Florida. The man, identified as 31-year-old Hunter Hardesty, of Davidsonville, Maryland, appeared to find great humor in the act, which resulted in a pelican being briefly submerged in the water after he apparently lured the bird near him with a piece of fish before jumping from a dock and into the water.

But is he still laughing? As reported by Florida Keys News, Hardesty will likely be facing charges for the incident. On Monday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission stated that two criminal charges are being filed against Hardesty.

In a statement to the news agency, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay expressed disgust over the man’s behavior:

“I shared the anger of those who contacted me regarding this video. This type of behavior — the abuse of animals — will not be tolerated on my watch and I know our law enforcement partners at the FWC and at the federal level share that mindset. I would like to thank those who quickly brought to this my attention and to the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office and the FWC who responded quickly.”

Hardesty posted the video on his Facebook page and it raised the ire of animal lovers across the nation – despite hundreds of comments expressing outrage and disgust over the cruel behavior, Hardesty seemed to find the entire situation humorous. In fact, on Sunday he posted:

I’m so hungry I could eat a pelican!!!

The viral video inspired multiple people to reach out to the authorities regarding the situation.

The news agency reports that Hardesty already has a criminal record in Maryland – though he spent little time behind bars for his crime because most of the sentence was suspended.

Though charges are supposedly being filed, the case remains under investigation.

Prior article about this situation at this link.

Yesterday: No jail time for teen who torched cat – more here.

What a sweetie