Posted on 03/15/2007 2:49:10 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
March 15, 2007 — In 2003, a large suitcase containing the remains of 26 butchered monkeys was confiscated at Logan Airport in Boston on its way from Ghana.
The 300 pounds of raw meat, destined to be served as the main course at a wedding in New Hampshire, was "oozing out of its container," said Tom Healy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[snip]...
Cane rat, monkey and bat are the bushmeats most often found being smuggled into the United States, and according to Jennifer McQuiston, a veterinarian at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, each is known to carry diseases that can be deadly to humans.
"Rodents from Africa carry viruses like monkeypox, and nonhuman primates can carry Ebola and tuberculosis," she said.
In 2003, more than 50 people across the Midwestern United States were diagnosed with monkeypox. Scientists traced the outbreak to a Texas pet shop that sold domesticated prairie dogs, as well as a giant infected rat imported from Gambia.
After the monkeypox outbreak, security at airports was stepped up. But smugglers got wise, and much of the trade was pushed further underground, explained Healy, the special agent in charge of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Northeast division.
Bushmeat is often discovered in "container cargo mixed in with legal stuff. … After the monkeypox scare a lot of it went underground," he said.
Last year federal agents found 33 pieces of bushmeat, including a monkey arm hidden under dried fish in the garage of a Liberian immigrant living in Staten Island, N.Y. Mamie Jefferson, 39, who is still awaiting trial on smuggling charges , says that consuming bushmeat is a religious practice protected by the First Amendment.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
That is nasty!
From the title, I thought this was going to be about the Dems' treatment of Alberto Gonzales.
Why don't they just ferment some good quality domestic meats and get their illnesses initiated quicker?
Unfortunately, when our founders sought to protect "freedom of religion" -- they couldn't have imagined there were so many lunatics in the world...
Are we too late to define "religion"?
Semper Fi
Great big globs of greasy grimy gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meat,
Dirty little babies feet.
French fried eyeballs,
rollin' in a bowl of blood.
I forgot my spoon.
That would not make the meat have Ebola or Monkey Pox, etc. They should stop this before there is a health disaster.
Probably we are too late, but I hope we don't have to run a big public heath risk to accomodate some weirdo African cultural practices!
From the article:
"If 500,000 animals are killed in a given year and handled by hunters, middle people and consumers, that's 1.5 billion contacts. The risk isn't in how much you eat," he said.
500,000 times 3 equals 1,500,000,000
math illiteracy affects not only writers, but fact-checkers and editors.
Agreed. I believe that most of the ebola outbreaks in Africa were linked to "bushmeat" consumption.
The thought of an outbreak in the US is terrifying.
The Supreme Court decided in the 1878 case Reynolds v. United States that while you have to right to believe what you want, you don't necessarily have the right to practice what you want if it is illegal.
"Cane rat, monkey and bat are the bushmeats most often found being smuggled into the United States"
....oh, never MIND....!!!
I thought this was yet ANOTHER campaign '08 thread.....
really?
I wonder how difficult it would be to establish the illegality of some of the more offensive and obviously "in your face" practices of the Islamists...
1- Full face and body covering clothing in public places.
2- Demanding services or accommodations that are not available or open to all other religions - ie, unique prayer rooms in public facilities.
3- Refusing to perform job services when those services don't violate U.S. law, ie -- transporting those with alcohol/dogs, or handling Pork in restaurants, grocery stores, etc..
4. I could go on.....but you get my drift..
Semper Fi
Haven't thought of that song since I taught it to my son's Cub Scout Den. There were other mothers who were not amused!
LOL
If these people cannot live like civilized human beings -- stay in your HOME COUNTRIES.
As long as we continue to import uneducated thirld world immigrants (legal or illegal) with nothing positive to contribute to American society, this is whats going to happen. Just reading about it makes me sick.
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