Lynch Mob

[Doug Yanega]

>mark jackson wrote:
>>
>> Hi,       I think you should take a good look at
>> Dao Lu web page, it states on it that you need
>> to get a permit from USDA to buy from him.
>> So how is he selling " Red Book " specimens?
>> Sometimes it seams to me there is a lynch mob
>> mentality here. Has anyone apologized to him?
>>                                mark j.
>
>The USDA stuff is a recent addition. This may be why he is again
>requesting our attention.
>The USDA is not concerned with preserving insects worldwide (in this
>matter); they're making sure his bugs don't have communicable diseases
>and such. Phytosanitary permit.

This is correct - the agency from whom permits for commercial import/export
of wildlife products should be solicited is the USFWS, as many of us are
all too painfully aware (as in the infamous "eight or more specimens of the
same organism qualifies as a commercial shipment" rule we had to fight
against not so long ago). It was my mistake earlier in suggesting that
there was a relationship between CITES and the Red Data Book, not Neil's,
and for that confusion I apologize - nonetheless, you should note that not
once have I said that Mr. Lu's activities were illegal (my use of the word
"unethical" instead is intentional, and I stand by it), nor have I - or
anyone else I am aware of - taken any actions against him, so I don't know
what "lynch mob" is being referred to, nor what apologies need to be
offered. Despite impressions to the contrary, even the most vocal of us do
at least wait until all the facts are in before doing anything serious.
        Of course, if Mr. Lu continues to send his ads, he might soon
qualify as a spammer. There are accepted net-wide guidelines for defining
cancellable spam, and the definition is - contrary to popular perception -
content-independent, having to do solely with the number of times an
identical message is posted within a certain amount of time. This is NOT
true of UCE, which *is* defined by content, is not cancellable, and is all
his postings are at present.

Peace,

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 031-449-2579, fax: 031-441-5481  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82