CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Although he was not cited with breaking any laws, Vice President Dick Cheney did not have proper hunting credentials when he accidentally shot a fellow hunter at a private ranch over the weekend, authorities said Monday.
Cheney, an experienced outdoorsman who had a valid out-of-state hunting license, will receive a formal warning for failing to purchase the required $7 stamp for bird hunting, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a statement. The stamp is a new requirement, and the department has issued verbal warnings to hunters, who were apparently unaware that they needed it.
The vice president's office said in a statement Monday night that his staffers had not known about the stamp requirement and that Cheney had sent a check to Texas to cover the cost.
The accident occurred on a ranch Saturday when the vice president wheeled to shoot at a covey of quail and accidentally sprayed his hunting partner, 78-year-old lawyer Harry Whittington, with shotgun pellets, authorities said.
Whittington, who is being treated for head injuries, was moved out of intensive care at a hospital here Monday and was reported to be in good spirits.
"This was a hunting accident," said Gilbert San Miguel, chief deputy of the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office. "There was no alcohol or misconduct."
But the incident has reverberated worldwide: "Cheney Bags a Lawyer" was the headline in the Herald of Glasgow, Scotland.
And it has forced a White House already under fire for secrecy to explain why it made no mention of the shooting until the ranch owner disclosed it to a local newspaper, 18 hours after the incident.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Monday that the "first priority was making sure that Harry Whittington ... was getting the medical care that he needed. And I think that's where everybody's attention should have been focused, and was focused, when the hunting accident took place."
Still, McClellan deflected the blame away from the vice president, noting that Whittington left the hunt line to retrieve a downed quail and was approaching Cheney from behind.
"The protocol was not followed by Mr. Whittington when it came to notifying the others that he was there," McClellan said. "And so, you know, unfortunately these type of hunting accidents happen from time to time."
But hunting experts said that although Whittington should have made his location clear, the vice president should have been keeping track of his companions.
