Woman arrested carrying 266 dead parrots

reuters UK ^ | Tue 18 May, 2004 17:56 | Tansa Musa

[Rebelbase]

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Cameroon has arrested a Nigerian woman who was found carrying more than 200 dead parrots and rare Bannerman Turaco feathers, a customs official says.

The central African country has recently stepped up its fight against the poaching and killing of endangered species.

Officers stopped Meimuna Ahmed while she was on a bus with 266 embalmed grey parrots and 597 red Bannerman Turaco feathers in the northwestern town Bamenda.

"The red feathers must have been extracted from some 60 to 70 Bannerman Turacos, given that each of the birds has about 10 red feathers," Edwin Nuvaga Fongod, chief of customs in the North West province, told Reuters by phone from Bamenda.

The 41-year-old woman planned to sell the birds and the highly prized feathers, used in black magic rites and to decorate community leaders, in Nigeria, he said.

If convicted, she faces one year in prison and a fine of up to 10 million CFA francs (10,000 pounds) under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, to which Cameroon is a signatory, Fongod said.

Conservationists estimate there are 2,500 to 10,000 Bannerman Turacos left in the rapidly disappearing mountainous rain forest around Cameroon's Lake Oku.

[Ichneumon]

,,, trading up from "I want some red ribbons for a blue lady"

*cough*roses*cough*

[djf]

Outrageous! Wasting all those law enforcement resources when there are people out there with live parrots! I'm disgusted!!

[weegee]

It's a lot of lire but I don't have the yen to count them all.

[shaggy eel]

,,, altzheimers! How could I have got that wrong? I must have been thinking about all those roses lashed to the old oak tree.

[weegee]

"I thought we agreed there weren't going to be any wisecracks."

"And no singing!!!"

[MacDorcha]

he's singing with the choir invisible!

[Archangelsk]

Because I'm nice. The Parrot clip

[shaggy eel]

[Focault's Pendulum]

And now, for something completely different......

A Larch.

[My Favorite Headache]

As soon as I saw this thread I thought..ok..cue the Python pics.

[Rebelbase]

NEE!

[TheLurkerX]

"It's shuffled off the mortal coil. He'd be pushin' up the daisies if you hadn't nailed it's feet to the perch....This is an ex-parrot."

[AuH2ORepublican]

They're not dead, they're pining for the fjords.

[Miss Marple]

Guess what! You can do the whole sketch at home with this easily ordered prop:

[Cagey]

I wish to register a complaint! (Audio)

[TheLurkerX]

Icky, icky, icky, patang, wa-zoo-boing.

Dinnnnssssdale?

[Kenny Bunk]

If any Freepers have trouble getting their parrots to talk, their pets might just be dead. This is George Bush's fault, as he has consistently ignored and underfunded this shocking parrot abuse scandal.

In fact, some Republicans want those parrots dead, fearing they might talk a bit too much before the election. That is why I am casting my vote for Kerry. He cares for parrots, and very often sounds like one.

[TheLurkerX]

John Kerry thinks we should tax people standin' about in streams.

[P.O.E.]

Notlob! It's a pun