Captive Primate Safety Act SB 1498 –
it
is two threats in
one!
By Lynn Culver, June 2007
The 2007
Captive Primate Safety Act (S 1498 IS) is more then last year’s
bill. It is a new piece of legislation that combines the language of last
year’s Technical Amendment to the original (big cat) Captive Wildlife Safety
Act to fix the mess the original Captive Wildlife Safety Act created, and it
adds primates to the definition of ‘prohibited wildlife species’.
Legislative history
In the early 1900's, Congress passed the
Lacey Act
to support states in protecting their game animals and birds by prohibiting
the interstate shipment of wildlife killed in violation of state or
territorial laws. The Lacey Act makes trafficking in illegally acquired
wildlife a Federal crime.
In 2004 the Animal Rights community used the Lacey Act to further their
agenda by crafting an amendment and calling it the Captive Wildlife Safety
Act and finding legislators to introduce their bill. Disregarding the
paragraph above which clearly describes the purpose and intent of the Lacey
Act to federalize the interstate transport of illegally taken wildlife, the CWSA added prohibitions that criminalizes the interstate transport of
legally owned wildlife.
The US Department of Interior testified against the bill in 2004, stating it
would do little to further their main mission of protecting wildlife and
habitat. It didn’t matter; Congress passed it and President George W. Bush
signed it into law. The F & W had 180 days to write regulations.
Problems writing regulations for illegal legislation
F & W Service immediately ran into problems with regulations since the
language of the CWSA was inserted into the felony prohibition section of the
Lacey Act, in complete disregard for the legal statute on felonies that
requires a two-step process.
Each trafficking violation requires proof of two separate steps involving
wildlife at issue. First, the wildlife must be taken, possessed, transported
or sold by someone in violation of existing laws or treaties. Second, the
wildlife must then be subsequently imported, exported, transported, sold,
received, acquired or purchased. These two steps cannot be collapsed into
one step or act committed by the defendant. As presently written, the
two-step process for violations of the CWSA does not exist and therefore
cannot be prosecuted. The Service and the Department of Justice recommended
the Technical Amendment to move the CWSA provisions to another part of the
Lacey Act to allow the CWSA to be fully enforceable.
If SB 1498 passes, violations of the CWSA will be in the misdemeanor
section, not the felony section of the Act. It will hardly be worth anyone’s
time to investigate, charge and prosecute. It is however, a dangerous abuse
of our federal system and the Lacey Act by the animal rights community and
it further empowers them with our elected officials. Congress has given them
too much of their time, and spent way too much of our tax dollars on this
matter.
SB 1498 includes a prohibition to transport any species of primate as well
as the seven large cat species of the original Act, and unlike the big cats,
I am quite sure this new legislation will affect many times more pet owners
then the original CWSA.
There is no escaping ban bills if SB 1498 Passes!
We already know from the draft regulations proposed by the F & W Service
last February that they have interpreted the CWSA to mean anyone who tries
to move from one state to another with a household pet that is a listed
“prohibited wildlife species” is now violating the Lacey Act. The comments
below are a direct quote from the F & W proposed regulations published in
the Federal Register last February:
"It is also important to note that the transport prohibition contained in the CWSA applies to any transportation of the prohibited wildlife species in interstate or foreign commerce, not only to transportation that involves commercial activity. This means that any person who owns a live specimen of a prohibited wildlife species and who wants to transport the animal in interstate or foreign commerce as a pet, or even as part of a household move, would not be allowed to do so under the prohibitions contained in the CWSA."
As more and more states and counties and cities pass ordinances and laws affecting pet owners, people are calling their realtors and putting up ‘For Sale’ signs and moving somewhere else to find refuge that will allow them to live in peace with their pets.
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