permits and licenses

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

The example James provides below is a good example of a requirement that
seems to be impossible to meet and I wonder why it is even necessary. In the
case of a bug that is not endangered nor legally protected in the country of
origin; how does it serve the public interest of the citizens of the USA to
have people turned into felons because they did not get a piece of paper
that does not seem to have any particular purpose. Really now, nobody knows
all the laws on the books in their own country. Yet the over-zealous
enforcement of the Lacy Act seems to suggest that the enforcers somehow
think it is reasonable for a butterfly hobbyist to be aware of laws of
another country.  In the case of deliberate poaching in violation of
domestic law; a prosecutor can reasonably conclude that it is in the public
interest to prosecute. In the case of someone not getting a piece of paper
required under the law of another country; I fail to see how it is in the
public interest of a different country to spend public money on
investigation and prosecution.  But then maybe I am being unreasonable in
expecting other public servants to be reasonable :-)  The amount of
attention being paid to butterfly collectors who might overlook an
administrative exercise, suggests there are not enough drug smugglers, bear
gall smugglers, murderers, etc to keep our enforcement folks busy :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: James J Kruse [mailto:fnjjk1 at aurora.uaf.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 11:57 AM
To: Leps-l
Subject: permits and licenses


On Tue, 13 Feb 2001, Ron Gatrelle wrote:

> General. Insects require NO permits to import or export under 50 CFR 14
> unless CITES endangered under 50 CFR 23 or US endangered 50 CFR 17.

If you are trying to import insect specimens to the U.S., proof of permit
is required if the country from which the insects are exported has some
sort of an export permit. It is your responsibility to know this if you
are importing (to the U.S.) from other countries.

The specimens do not have to be CITES endangered or U.S. endangered. For
example, if you want to bring in Pieris rapae from Russia, you need a
Russian export permit or your specimens will be confiscated. It doesn't
matter if the permit is impossible to get (Russian scientists apparently
don't even know how to get one). Too bad if the specimens are plainly
labeled 200 year old type specimens of nothing but scientific value and
it is obvious that there is no commercial intent. If you try to bring them
in, they are doomed to be destroyed by dermestid beetles in a
non-environmentally controlled warehouse while you scramble around trying
to find a permit or spending years with a lawyer or worse.

If a professional or hunting-style license alleviates this overzealous
nonsense, then I am all for it.

Regards,
James J. Kruse, Ph.D.
Curator of Entomology
University of Alaska Museum
907 Yukon Drive, PO Box 756960
Fairbanks, AK  99775-6960
Phone: 907.474.5579
Fax: 907.474.1987/5469
http://www.uaf.edu/museum/


 
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