(US) Inspectors Stake Out Smuggled Animals

[Guest guest]

Inspectors Stake Out Smuggled Animals

AP

11/30/2006

 

Wildlife inspector Bryan Landry can spot threats everywhere at

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. A backpack carried off a

flight from Nigeria contains plastic bags of meat from the bush that could

harbor the lethal Ebola virus. Those salted duck eggs from South Korea, a

delicacy not easily found here, could carry the dreaded bird flu. And the exotic

birds taped to a passenger's legs and the pair of monkey paws concealed in a bag

could harbor any one of several diseases that jump to humans. Landry and fellow

inspectors with the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service are a last line of defense

against such risky items before they come across the border, often with

unsuspecting people intending only to bring back a taste from home, an exotic

pet or a travel memento.

 

" The issues surrounding disease are quickly becoming a daily event, " Landry

said.

 

Potential carriers are multiplying. Some 210 million wild animals were brought

legally into the country last year, and many more were smuggled. The net of

protection is thin.

 

There are just 120 inspectors like Landry to cover 39 airports and border

crossings full time. Though Customs and Border Protection inspectors help

monitor some smuggling, the wildlife inspectors are left to check passenger

baggage, shipments of hunting trophies, cargo containers destined for the pet

trade and suspicious boxes.

 

" It's tough to cover all the things we have to do on a daily basis with so few

inspectors. Now throw in disease-fighting duties and it's really tough, " Landry

said.

 

THREATS FROM EXOTIC FOODS

 

When Landry is not in a cargo hold, he is on the airport passenger floor

scanning weary international travelers as they pour off flights from North

Korea, Paris and Nigeria to collect their luggage.

 

" We don't profile people, " Landry said. " We profile bags. "

 

After most international flights, mainly from Asia and Africa, containers

overflow with seized products including raw chicken, salted duck eggs and

pungent meat.

 

" They want a taste of home, " Landry explained, " so they bring these products

in. "

 

A passenger from Nigeria carried two plastic bags filled with bushmeat and

blackened fish in his backpack — a present for his wife and daughter. They

missed the flavors of their native country, he explained.

 

A woman traveling from South Korea carried several bright red bags of moonpies,

which are cake-like patties with yolks in the middle. And she brought some

salted duck eggs. She had no idea that they might harbor the deadly H5N1 bird

flu virus.

 

Human consumption of virus-laden animals or animal products can mean trouble.

Most scientists believe HIV/AIDS started in Africa with human consumption of a

primate that carried simian immunodeficient virus. SARS, or severe acute

respiratory syndrome, is believed to have originated from the handling and

consumption of wild animals in China.

 

Heather Eves, director of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, said there are

hundreds if not thousands of pounds of bushmeat coming into the United States

every day with little or no tracking.

 

In one of the first cases of its kind, New York federal prosecutors charged a

woman who smuggled bushmeat into the country with fraudulently importing goods.

The woman imported 12 boxes from West Africa with 65 pieces of smoked antelope

and monkey parts buried beneath smoked fish.

 

SMUGGLED ANIMALS

 

An " Intel Alert " flier was stuck on a door deep within the Atlanta airport,

featuring a picture of a small tranquilized finch stuffed into a hair curler.

The alert warned inspectors to be on the lookout for birds smuggled into the

United States from Asian countries in unconventional ways.

 

" When I see hair curlers, " Landry said, " I look a little bit closer. "

 

That's because it takes only one bird to bring bird flu to the United States,

said Simon Habel, head of Traffic North America, a group that monitors illegal

wildlife trade.

 

Birds imported legally go through quarantine.

 

Many exotic birds are banned from importation because they are endangered, so

collectors pay a steep price on the black market. And smugglers are increasingly

creative.

 

One squeezed 44 Cuban melodious finches into small plastic tubes and taped them

to his legs for a flight into Miami. Another carved large boxes with air holes

into car seats so he could smuggle dozens of colorful Amazon parrots across the

Mexican border to San Diego.

 

ANIMAL TROPHIES

 

Diseases don't just travel in food or live animals.

 

Recently, Landry examined some medicinal Asian herb packets used to make teas.

He noticed dried bird feet, claws, feathers and even bird skulls with dried

blood and brains. " If anything will carry avian flu, it will be that, " Landry

said.

 

Another day, Landry spotted a woman arriving from Ghana. Her bags didn't look

right, but more importantly they didn't smell right.

 

Landry asked whether she was carrying any plants, animals or food. The woman

said that she was not, but Landry sent her to be inspected by agriculture

specialists.

 

When her bags were opened, plants and fruits spilled out. So did a pair of

monkey paws.

 

Landry asked why she didn't declare them. The woman said she forgot about the

paws, which she planned to display in her living room.

 

The paws violated the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species.

They also posed a potential disease risk since primates can carry pathogens,

from Ebola to tuberculosis. So Landry carefully placed the paws in a plastic bag

to be incinerated.

 

" In this job, you don't know what kind of diseases you'll be exposed to, " said

Landry, a father of three young children. He worries he might unintentionally

bring a deadly bug home to his family.

 

Recently, an inspector found dried but chemically untreated civet cat and

primate skins smuggled in the lining of a bag. Civet cats are a potential

carrier of SARS.

 

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