RFK Jr. Put your hand in the dead bear’s mouth full of brains: necropsy

At one point that day, Kennedy — who is now an independent candidate for president of the United States — posed with the bear cub’s corpse in a photo that became instantly famous when the New Yorker published it earlier this month. He put his hand in the bear’s bloody mouth, looked down and grimaced.

As it turns out, Kennedy may have touched the bear’s brain matter.

Business Insider has obtained the state report detailing the Department of Environmental Conservation’s necropsy of the bear cub.

The document reveals that Kennedy had good instincts when it came to evaluating bear meat. The animal “is in good flesh with good fat reserves for its age and season,” wrote Kevin Hynes, the wildlife biologist who performed the necropsy, in his report for the department’s Wildlife Health Unit.

“The carcass is relatively fresh and the tissues are in good post-mortem condition,” Hynes wrote in the report.

According to the report, the 7- or 8-month-old bear was crushed in the head — which is consistent with Kennedy’s story that she was hit by a van.

The skull was “destroyed,” Hynes wrote, and the brain tissue left there was “compressed, liquefied and hemorrhagic.” Much of the bear’s brain tissue leaked out through its mouth and nostrils, according to the report.

“Brain structures are unrecognizable (unsuitable for rabies testing),” the report said.

Reached by phone, Hynes referred questions to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, which declined to make him available for an interview.

In an interview with the New Yorker, Kennedy speculated that sticking his hand in the bear’s mouth might be how he got his brainworm.

But he testified about the parasite in his own skull in a deposition two years before the bear was killed, according to The New York Times. In the deposition, Kennedy said a doctor told him the worm got “into my brain and ate some of it and then died.”

Representatives for Kennedy’s presidential campaign did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider on Friday.

The bear’s skin, carcass and brain tissue sample were frozen and sealed in the state Department of Environment’s wildlife health facility. The frozen remains are no longer in the department’s possession, according to agency spokesman Jeff Wernick, who said the samples “generally are destroyed.”

RFK Jr. and the bear carcass may have something else in common

Kennedy first revealed the story of the bear in a video posted on social media before the New Yorker article was published.

“I said, ‘Let’s put the bear in Central Park and make it look like it got hit by a bike,'” Kennedy said in the video. “It’s going to be fun, funny for people. So everyone thought, “That’s a great idea.” So we went and did that and thought it would be funny for whoever found it.”

A woman walking her dog found the bear the next day, Oct. 6, around 8:45 a.m. Law enforcement organizations moved the body from under a bicycle, which Kennedy or one of his friends apparently left on top of it, wrapped it in a tarp. , and took it to the Wildlife Health Unit for necropsy.

Hynes, upon examining the bear’s carcass, quickly concluded that the cub had likely been killed by a vehicle. Until RFK publicly took credit for disposing of the bear’s body, authorities had no idea who put it there. DEC records indicate the case was closed by the end of 2014.

Kennedy’s revelation that he was involved in moving the bear’s carcass came too late for any law enforcement action. regarding the possession or disposal of the body, said Wernick, of the environment department.

“The statute of limitations for these crimes is one year; charges cannot be brought for incidents that occurred more than a year ago,” Wernick told BI.

Aside from the roadkill incident, the bear cub and Kennedy might have something else in common: They both might not be from New York.

On Monday, a New York judge found that Kennedy’s use of his Westchester County address was not a “legitimate and legitimate residence, but merely a ‘false’ address that he assumed in order to- and maintain voter registration”. Kennedy’s real residence is in California, where he lived with his wife, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines, the judge found.

A DNA test on the bear cub found it could be from New Jersey, not New York.

Lab technicians who analyzed the bear’s DNA found it was likely from the Sterling Forest region, which straddles the New Jersey-New York border.

It was more similar to New Jersey bears — but the sample size was too small to be definitive, according to the necropsy report.

Kennedy is appealing the court’s ruling on his residency. During the trial, he discussed the bear’s carcass with reporters.

“All my life I’ve been killed on the roads. I have a freezer full,” he told reporters at the court.