Posted on 08/12/2018 10:37:44 AM PDT by jazusamo
ALBANY, N.Y. — At an event in the Adirondacks last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recounted a treasured memory of the time his family retrieved an eagle feather from Saranac Lake and kept it after one of the beautiful birds swooped near his canoe.
In telling the story, the New York Democrat was unknowingly confessing a crime.
A federal law prohibits non-Native Americans from possessing bald eagle parts, including feathers. The law has been on the books for nearly 80 years, but most Americans, Cuomo included, probably don’t know about it.
Cuomo, a lawyer and former federal official, revealed his legal faux pas Tuesday while announcing an economic development grant for the village of Saranac Lake.
After The Associated Press in Albany inquired about the issue, Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said the family was unaware of the federal law when they took the feather from the water.
“We have two options, put it back in the river or donate it to a US Fish and Wildlife repository,” Azzopardi wrote in an email. “We’ll ?do one or the other.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Well, if that is covered under religious ritual, that makes sense. But possessing an eagle feather IF FOUND should not be a crime. Birds lose feathers all the time. Ridiculous.
Thank you for that link. I loved it.
Laws are for the little people.
No, guys like Cuomo show no mercy to good people who break laws unknowingly. I say, “LOCK HIM UP!”
Bald eagle population is not overpopulated you don’t know what you’re talking about they are at a good level but they’re not overpopulated. And what endangered fish are they eating? You’re being silly.
My first thought was just who was he pandering to with that (possibly fake) story,
I agree that the federal government should have no jurisdiction; however, for over 75 years the Supreme Court has held that just about everything falls under the federal government's interstate commerce jurisdiction. See, e.g., Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942) and Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005).
The Constitution now says whatever the hell 5 out of 9 Supreme Court Justices want it to say.
Amen to that.
Hilliary had a FAN woman ARRESTED for giving her a Dream Catcher that had an eagle feather in it! ARREST HIM!
Of course it shouldn’t be a crime. Peyote was part of their drunken rituals, too.
From the article:
“We have two options, put it back in the river or donate it to a US Fish and Wildlife repository,” Azzopardi wrote in an email. “We’ll ?do one or the other.”
I’m sure all criminals are given these options when they get caught.
Bob Lonsberry should get a kick out of this, considering someone got him in trouble for taking a picture of a dead bluebird.
Which is the state bird of New York.
So it’s illegal to own one.
So Bob Lonsberry got in trouble for taking a picture of one.
I don’t believe his story at all. This poor excuse of a man lies every time he opens his mouth.
SWAT team should his house at gunpoint, shoot any dogs, and toss Cuomo in the slammer. You know, give him the same treatment everyone else enjoys.
I have to agree, he’s an accomplished liar.
“Ridiculous law unless you killed the eagle to get the feather.”
The law is just a bone that was thrown to the Native Americans. The irony is that it has stayed on the books for 80 years unlike treaties that were broken at will.
Not sure it has much to do with who owns the property
but rather who has control of the Eagle.
****
Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940. This act was expanded to include the golden
eagle in 1962.[1] Since the original Act, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act
has been amended several times. It currently prohibits anyone, without a permit
issued by the Secretary of the Interior, from “taking” bald eagles. Taking is
described to include their parts, nests, or eggs, molesting or disturbing the birds.
The Act provides criminal penalties for persons who “take, possess, sell,
purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, at
any time or any manner, any bald eagle ... [or any golden eagle], alive or dead, or any
part, nest, or egg thereof.”[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_and_Golden_Eagle_Protection_Act
Killing permits
In December 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed quadrupling to 4,200 per year the amount of bald eagles that can be killed by the wind electric generation industry without paying a penalty. If issued, the permits would last 30 years, six times the current 5-year permits.[134][135]
The Bald Eagle is rated “Least Concerned”. If you live by a large body of water, they are everywhere.
I hope not for an eagle feather!
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