Undercover for wildlife

Jim Dowd remembers exactly where he was when he learned he’d been offered a position as a special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fittingly, he was undercover — as an investigator for the General Services Administration Office of Inspector General (GSA OIG) conducting surveillance at a gas station for an individual exploiting a government credit card.

In his 11 years as a special agent for the Service, Dowd has used his criminal investigation skills to target not just individuals, but networks that exploit vulnerable wildlife in the United States and abroad for profit, often working undercover to purchase tiger skins, eagle feathers, elephant ivory, and other trafficked goods.

Operation Sound of Silence is a case in point. Dowd led the investigation into the trafficking of CITES-protected water monitor lizards — taken from the wild in the Philippines and smuggled to the U.S. inside speakers and subwoofers — identifying three Filipino suppliers, 10 U.S. customers, and more than 30 shipments containing nearly 100 lizards in total.

At a virtual awards ceremony on April 27, 2021, Dowd was named the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agency’s Special Agent of the Year for his outstanding achievements in 2020, in part for his role in the case. But he considers Operation Sound of Silence an exemplar of collaboration.

“Every branch of the Office of Law Enforcement came together — special agents, wildlife inspectors, attachés,” he said, explaining that the Service’s official stationed in Bangkok, Thailand, facilitated their instrumental coordination with the National Bureau of Investigations in the Philippines.

The case also demonstrates how wildlife crime has changed over time. “The internet has definitely facilitated the growth of international wildlife trafficking, and the pace at which it decimates populations,” he said. The smugglers in the Philippines and the customers in the U.S. used Facebook Messenger to negotiate.

But he said the Office of Law Enforcement has continually evolved to combat a threat that is simultaneously growing, and becoming more diffuse.

As the son of a special agent, Dowd has seen that evolution firsthand.

Like many kids, Dowd’s childhood featured family trips to the beach. His differ in context.

“My father would work a week on Cape Cod on piping plover related enforcement, and my brother, mom, and I would come along,” he said. When his father, Christopher Dowd, was done working, he and his partner would take Jim and his younger brother Will fishing for striped bass.

For Dowd, the nighttime fishing excursions are a treasured memory. But his dad’s day job made a stronger impression.

“I got to see how their passion helped shift the focus of the work of special agents from traditional game-warden enforcement — focusing on illegal hunting and baiting — to international wildlife smuggling cases. From duck decoys to caviar,” he said. While he emphasized enforcing game laws remained vitally important, his dad and other agents were digging for more for good reason. “They were pushing for cases that would have a bigger impact.”

That shift laid the groundwork for the ambitious investigative work carried out by special agents across the country today with support from wildlife inspectors at major ports and attachés abroad — critical and often invisible work that’s key to the success of wildlife conservation. It’s what made Dowd want to work for the Service. It’s why he knew he would have to earn it.

After graduating from college, Dowd began down the path toward his career goal, seeking new challenges that would provide the skills he needed.

He joined the U.S. Park Police in Washington D.C. during a tense time in the nation’s capital, just one month after the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

After five years, he competed to join the force’s selective Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, responsible for handling situations that exceed the ordinary duties of police officers. “Hostage rescue, barricades, high-risk entries: it’s a specialty full-time unit, and you need to be available for any emergency or dangerous situation,” he said. Because Dowd was located in D.C., that included presidential and dignitary protection and escorts, working hand in hand with the U.S. Secret Service.

While these incidents were sometimes connected with larger investigations, Dowd was eager to be on the investigative side himself — working complex cases from the beginning to the end — and sought out the position with the GSA OIG focusing on government fraud and abuse. That job provided foundational training and experience in federal criminal investigation, and brought him back to his hometown of Boston, and eventually, to the gas station where he was doing surveillance when he learned his career dream had come true.

From then onward, he has been continually driven to excel by the Service’s high-trust work environment and the compelling mission of the agency.

“We won’t have any wildlife left if we don’t protect it now,” he said, adding, “But we also know protections work: when I was young, you wouldn’t ever see eagles or peregrine falcons. I can see how the kind of work my dad did led to real change.”

Dowd has more motivation than ever to be thinking about the next generation. He and his wife Meghan have a young son Kellan — a toddler with a budding appreciation for wildlife.

On his days off, Dowd looks forward to taking his son to the park. “We feed the fish, and look for geese and hawks.”

The birds are proof that wildlife law enforcement makes a difference, and his son’s excitement, of why it matters.

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