The USFWS has been over the top for many years. An interesting example of their excesses is related in an account of the 1980ish Operation Falcon, “The Pilgrim and the Cowboy,” in which hundreds of American falconers were targeted in an elaborate, expensive entrapment scheme that produced many arrests and few convictions. I believe another sting similarly took place around 2003 or 2004.
The agency has targeted the herp people, the avian community, insect collectors and others over the years. Their tactics are unconscionable and disgusting. Unfortunately, few have the resources to fight them in the courts.
“The USFWS has been over the top for many years.”
You are correct. http://www.nationalcenter.org/ShatteredDreams.html
“Shattered Dreams: One Hundred Stories of Government Abuse
As Ronald Reagan said, the nine scariest words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” An important new book, just out from the National Center for Public Policy Research, shows how on the mark the Gipper was. Shattered Dreams: One Hundred Stories of Government Abuse gives a hundred reasons why government left unchecked can harm even innocent, law-abiding citizens.
With a foreword by Ted Nugent and an introduction by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, Shattered Dreams serves a cautionary note against those who would expand government’s powers and increase its scope over our lives and livelihoods. A team of researchers and experts at the NCPPR provide a rap sheet of government’s regulatory missteps, from the merely comic (like the Minnesota girl harassed for running an unlicensed lemonade stand) to the truly horrific (children ripped from the loving arms of parents whose only crime was wanting a quality education for their kids).”
If you think it can’t happen to you or that “ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse” then read the stories that say otherwise through the link provided above.