ReutersRobert F Kennedy Jr is facing calls from environmentalists over a historic claim that he once decapitated a dead beached whale with a chainsaw and carried it home on the roof of his car.
A group supporting Kamala Harris for president says Mr Kennedy’s alleged removal and transport of the whale skull may have broken the law.
Mr Kennedy, 70, has not commented on the incident, which his daughter recounted in detail in an interview 12 years ago.
The call for an investigation comes days after he suspended his independent presidential campaign, which was marked by bizarre developments including the confession that he once dumped a dead bear in New York’s Central Park.
Mr Kennedy has now endorsed Donald Trump for president and has been invited to join the Republican candidate’s transition team if he wins.
The whale head incident, which occurred around 1994, was recounted by Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy in a 2012 interview with Town & Country magazine.
Mr Kennedy, who is said to have enjoyed studying animal skulls and skeletons, is said to have heard that the animal’s carcass had washed up in Hyannis Harbor, Massachusetts, where his family was staying.
He went to the beach to cut off the head with a chainsaw, then used a rubber band to tie it to the roof of the family’s minivan. The family then drove back to their home in New York, Ms. Kennedy said.
“Every time we speed down the highway, whale water comes in through the windows, and it’s the most terrifying thing in the world,” Kennedy told the magazine.
“We all had plastic bags on our heads, holes cut out for our mouths, and people on the highway gave us the middle finger, but that was just normal for us.”
The call for an investigation was made by the Biodiversity Action Fund, which has publicly endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
The group has written a letter to marine conservation officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). The BBC has contacted Noaa for comment.
The letter, cited by US media, said Mr Kennedy may have violated multiple federal laws by collecting wildlife body parts and transporting them across state borders.
“Important research opportunities are lost when individuals rummage through wildlife carcasses and interfere with the work of scientists,” wrote the group’s political director Brett Hartl.
“This is especially true for marine mammals, which are among the most difficult wildlife species to study in the world,” Mr Hartl added.
Noaa has yet to publicly acknowledge receipt of the letter or comment, nor has Mr Kennedy. The BBC has approached his campaign for comment.
At one point earlier this year, Mr Kennedy was averaging about 15% in opinion polls supporting the president as an independent candidate.
His speech combines anti-establishment and anti-corporate views with libertarian, environmentalist and controversial vaccine skepticism.
But his support has dwindled and last week he announced he would suspend his campaign.
Although he initially competed for the Democratic nomination, he eventually criticized his former party and endorsed Donald Trump, a move that disappointed his relatives, some of the most prominent figures in Democratic politics.
Mr Kennedy’s campaign attracted many bizarre and scandalous headlines.
In May, The New York Times reported that he told lawyers involved in his 2012 divorce proceedings that he was experiencing memory problems related to a dead brain parasite.
In mid-July, Mr Kennedy texted a former family nanny apologizing after Vanity Fair magazine published a story in which she accused him of unwanted sexual advances. “I have no recollection of this incident but I sincerely apologize for anything I have ever done that made you feel uncomfortable,” he wrote.
In comments to the media, he said the Vanity Fair article contained a lot of “rubbish” but admitted that he had a “very, very tumultuous childhood” and that he was “not a religious boy”.
Earlier this month, Mr Kennedy was filmed speaking to actress Roseanne Barr, recounting the incident involving the dead bear cub in 2014.
He said a woman killed the bear with her car while he was driving in a rural area, and he loaded it into his truck with the initial intention of getting the meat.
But he eventually thought it would be “fun” to leave the bear’s body in New York’s Central Park, making it appear that a lost cyclist had killed the animal. The bear was found the next day.
Responding to a BBC request for comment, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation said it could not bring charges for incidents that occurred more than a year ago.
