Houston duo with severed animal heads charged, and other interesting notes from Game Wardens Game Wardens show some love in Valentine's Day edition of monthly notes

Tainted Love Harris County game wardens were called to assist the Houston Police Department with a traffic stop involving a vehicle that had multiple untagged animal heads. After speaking with the occupants of the vehicle, the wardens discovered that the two people in the vehicle were from Louisiana and had been working in El Paso County with another individual who had already returned to Louisiana. In their spare time, two of the subjects decided to go on a Texas safari and shot an elk, gemsbok and an untagged 8-point white-tailed buck that they were transporting home. The driver claimed the animals were shot legally on public land. However, a follow-up with the landowner in El Paso County confirmed the suspects had been hunting on private land without landowner consent. One of the occupants had no hunting license, and it was discovered a .22 caliber rimfire round was used to kill all the animals and the meat had gone to waste. It is illegal to hunt a white-tailed buck with rimfire ammunition. The driver shot the white-tailed buck and simply cut its head off. Working quickly with an El Paso County game warden, the animals and rifle were seized as evidence in anticipation of felony and multiple Class A and C charges being filed against the suspects. less Tainted Love Harris County game wardens were called to assist the Houston Police Department with a traffic stop involving a vehicle that had multiple untagged animal heads. After speaking with the occupants of ... more Photo: QuantumWebmasters/Getty Images/iStockphoto Photo: QuantumWebmasters/Getty Images/iStockphoto Image 1 of / 21 Caption Close Houston duo with severed animal heads charged, and other interesting notes from Game Wardens 1 / 21 Back to Gallery

It was anything but a routine traffic stop when a Houston police officer recently pulled over a car filled with severed untagged animal heads.

The two people inside the car told the officer and a Texas Game Warden that the heads, which were those of an elk, a buck and a gemsbok, were all legally obtained during a hunting trip to El Paso. However, game wardens in El Paso quickly connected the heads to recent cases of two suspects trespassing and hunting on private land.

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In the case of the buck, the gunmen shot the animal and cut its head off, leaving the bulk of the body behind, according to game wardens.

Police seized a rifle and the severed heads in anticipation of felony charges against the two.

See that and other interesting recent field notes from Texas game wardens in the gallery above.

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com