Posted on 12/10/2010 5:37:51 AM PST by La Lydia
Elephant tails, dried hedgehogs and chicken blood probably weren't on the top of your packing list the last time you traveled. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized all of that and other animal parts and plants from one suitcase at Washington Dulles International Airport. CBP spokesman Steve Sapp said Thursday that the items were taken on Dec. 3 from a 59-year-old man who was traveling from Ghana. The passenger said the items were used for spiritual purposes...The suitcase contained two elephant tails, bloody sheets, five chicken feathers, chicken blood, a dried hedgehog, two dried chameleons, grass, seed pods, tree bark chips and a jug filled with soil, herbs and blood, authorities said...
The passenger had declared to CBP only that he was carrying dried herbs and clothing.
Most of the items were incinerated, CBP officials said.
"Regardless of its intended purpose, each item posed potentially severe animal and plant disease threats to American agriculture," Hess said.
The elephant tails were not destroyed and were turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The tails violated the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations.
CBP said the passenger was told about the U.S. regulations. The main consequence he faces, Sapp said, are that he had to give up his suitcase and all of its contents.
He was also given a warning and is likely to have to undergo secondary inspections from CBP agriculture specialists on future trips to the United States, Sapp said...
Eeeew.
TSA Meets Mr. Wizard!
I soooooo agree with you!
The headline is grossly misleading.
If they catch you with grapefruit on the California border, you have the option of sitting down and eating all of them, or giving them up to be burned immediately.
They are trying to keep certain fruit flies out of California. The mountains are a natural border and man brings them across.
This joker needs to sit down and eat all that stuff or go back to where ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s what happens when you remove peanuts from the menu.
Penalty? Well, they took his suitcase.
My feeling is that if I were to violate any law in the slightest way, they'd put me in prison as fast as they could. I'm just a second class citizen here.
HA!!
Thank you, Flavius. You actually made me laugh out loud before I’ve even had a cup of coffee. That is no mean feat!
“The tails violated the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations.”
Well, yeah. So arrest this guy. Are Americans the only ones required to support engangered wildlife? An elephant is just as dead no matter who kills him.
Sarah’s caribou?
Uh, I don’t think there are caribou in Africa. What does she have to do with this? Non sequitur alert.
Ah, isn’t multiculturalism grand?
Voodoo Terrorist?
Chill dude...just trying to make a funny on a Friday morning...
...two elephant tails, bloody sheets, five chicken feathers, chicken blood, a dried hedgehog, two dried chameleons, grass, seed pods, tree bark chips and a jug filled with soil, herbs and blood...
Sounds tastier than the last airline meal I was served...
So our chickens aren't good enough for him?
Oh, and how did they know it was chicken blood?
What does Sarah’s caribou have to do with ritual supplies for Barack’s Mother in Law? It’s easy to interpret that remark to either mean the guy with the suit case is a thief or that there might be something wrong with her taking a caribou for food.
People Eating Tasty Animals is a good thing. Eating the free range version of your steak is not a problem. Many people seem to think that their beef, lamb and chicken just happens. Hunting is just doing a job metrosexuals won’t do.
I believe Frank was joking. He’s a Sarah fan, if I recall correctly.
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