RFK Jr. defends bizarre wildlife hobbies, pet emu at trial accusing him of lying about living in NY to get on ballot
ALBANY, N.Y. — Falcons, and ravens and emus, oh my!
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his wildlife hobbies — including falconry, training ravens and keeping a pet emu — on the stand Wednesday as he continued battling claims he lied about living in New York to get on the presidential ballot.
The Kennedy family scion, 70, has listed a Katonah, NY address on records over the last decade all while he’s lived in California with his wife Cheryl Hines, an actress on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
During questioning by Keith Corbett — a lawyer for the Biden-aligned Clear Choice PAC — which is suing to keep Kennedy off the Empire State ballot — the independent presidential candidate admitted most of his personal effects, as well as an emu, his dogs and two ravens he is trying to train are at his LA home.
Corbett grilled Kennedy about carrying on with his animal interests while living in California, including by pulling up a 50-second TikTok video of a tanned Kennedy feeding the birds from his LA balcony.
Corbett also confronted Kennedy with his California Falconry License dating back to 2015, while his New York fishing and marine license in New York only dated July 9.
Kennedy, an avid falconer, responded from the stand in Albany Supreme Court that it wasn’t his signature on the falconry license and he “occasionally” lets other people sign documents for him.
He testified that he never intended to practice falconry in California and keeps his falcons in Goshen, NY.
Wearing a black suit, light blue shirt and a narrow tie, Kennedy returned to the stand for the second day in a row to defend himself against claims he has been falsely claiming to live in New York in order to get around a quirk in the US Constitution that would bar him and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, from both winning the electoral college vote in California.
But while Kennedy sounded quite authoritative on the topic of corvids and falconry, he struggled to accurately name the addresses and dates of the places he’s lived and admitted he’d only stayed one time at his Katonah residence.
“I only slept there once,” he said of the house that’s in foreclosure and legally owed by Barbara Moss, the wife of his dad’s longtime pal Timothy Haydock, a Westchester doctor.
He used the Katonah address on his voter registrations to cast his ballot for primary and general elections going as far back as 2008 and as recently as 2020.
Kennedy testified that because of his secret service detail he usually has to stay in hotels since the officers wouldn’t comfortably fit at the Westchester house.
“I have spent very little time in either California or anywhere, any one place,” Kennedy said. “I’m usually in a hotel every night. I have a security detail that needs to stay with me and the security detail is not going to be comfortable at 84 [Croton Lake Road]. They don’t like it.”
“The security detail makes the arrangement where I stay, which is usually a hotel,” he added.
Kennedy maintained he always planned to moved back to New York once Hines retired from acting.
“My intent was to return to New York, which is all I need for residency.” Kennedy said.
He also went into detail about his training of the two ravens he keeps in LA, testifying that he can teach them to come when called, put a poker chip in a person’s pocket and even talk.
“They can talk like a parrot,” testified Kennedy, who said he once headed the New York Falconry Association, wrote the exam taken to become a falconer and helped pen falconry laws in the state.
“How long would it take you to teach a raven to talk?” Corbett asked.
“It takes about a year,” Kennedy replied.
He said he first learned about training hawks at 14 when he started attending a Millbrook, NY boarding school that had a zoo — following the assassination of his dad Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
“I’m a New Yorker. My drivers license is here mighty. My car is registered here. I’ve always voted here. I’ve never voted anywhere else. I pay income taxes here, my law office here, my law license is here,” he said on his way out of the courthouse.
The animal-focused testimony comes just days after Kennedy copped to being responsible for a black bear cub carcass ending up in Central Park a decade ago.
In a social media video, Kennedy laid out his bizarre stunt to skin and use the bear for meat after finding it dead during a falconing trip in Goshen.
He said he put the bear in his trunk and drove it to New York City, where he had a dinner but ended up having to ditch the carcass so he could catch a flight.
“I’ve been picking up roadkill my whole life. I have a freezer full of it,” Kennedy told The Post with a laugh while leaving court Wednesday. “A thousand cubic foot freezer full of roadkill.”
