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Robert F Kennedy Jr left Americans stunned last week when he admitted to dumping a dead bear cub in Manhattan’s Central Park, ending a decade-long mystery as to how the corpse wound up there.
Now the independent presidential candidate has made a new confession: he’s got a “freezer full” of roadkill and he’s been picking up dead animal carcasses from the curb his “whole life.”
The bizarre revelation came to light as RFK Jr left an upstate New York courtroom on Wednesday where he’s embroiled in a legal fight to stay on the state’s presidential ballot amid accusations that he falsified documents claiming to live in the Empire State.
When a reporter asked RFK Jr about the roadkill bear, he replied: “I’ve been picking up roadkill my whole life.”
“I have a freezer full of it,” he added, prompting laughter from members of the media.
RFK Jr’s campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spears later confirmed that his comments were no joke.
She said that RFK Jr, a falconer who trains ravens and keeps two as pets, uses roadkill to feed his birds.
His comments came just days after he revealed in a social media video on Sunday that he had dumped a dead bear in Central Park back in 2014.
In the bizarre video, featuring Roseanne Barr, he recounts how he saw a car hit the bear in upstate New York, killing it.
RFK Jr said he picked up the bear’s carcass and put it in his car, with plans to skin, butcher and harvest the meat to keep it in his refrigerator.
But, he said he had to go to the airport and so the meat – which he said was initially in “very good condition” – would have spoiled.
Along with some intoxicated friends, he elected to leave the bear in the Manhattan park instead.
At the time, the discovery of a dead bear hit headlines – and what had gone on remained a mystery for the next 10 years.
It was RFK Jr’s attempt to preempt a profile piece in the New Yorker, featuring a photo of him with his hand in the dead animal’s bloodied mouth, which prompted him to come clean now.
RFK Jr will not face state charges for his grisly actions, authorities said on Tuesday.
The story has largely overshadowed Kennedy’s civil trial, which began on Monday, that seeks to uncover whether he improperly listed a residence in Katonah, a wealthy Westchester County hamlet, as his home address when filing petition papers to be on the ballot in New York – while actually living in Los Angeles since 2014.
Attorneys representing several New York voters, backed by Clear Choice PAC, are alleging that Kennedy is not a New York resident.
While taking the stand on Tuesday at the Albany County Supreme Court, RFK Jr testified that his move to California was only temporary so he could be with his wife, actor Cheryl Hines, and that he always planned to return to New York.
A judge is set to decide the outcome.
RFK Jr is aiming to be on the ballot in all 50 states but has so far garnered just under nine per cent support in the polls, according to an analysis byThe Hill.
