Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It seems that everyone I talk to has a different take on the matter. Can anybody describe how one would properly do this, or if it is at all possible. I understand that you must acquire CITES paperwork, and an import licesnse from USFW, but what must both people have, or what must the exporter do on his end of the deal? Does he need to provide his country with proof of the animal's legal origin, or does he have to provide the US with his proof? I hear that many people are denied the proper permits, is there a foolproof way of doing things correctly without experiencing any complications? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I understand that importing aussie herps from europe may be tricky, but how about cb indonesian CITES I animals? WOuld you need to provide proof of origin as well, or is only for aussie animals because of the Lacey ACt(?). Thanks for your time, hopefully you can set me straight...

bob
-----
www.geocities.com/odatriad

Bob,

Well first off the person in EU must have documentation of the origin of their animals back from before export was shut down in OZ. Australia shut down export in 1969 if I remember correctly. There are alot of animals that are smuggled out of OZ into Europe all the time but the US will not allow them in because of their non verifiable origin.

On CITES appendix I animals. They can only be imported by a certified Zoological institution and can never be imported for resale. There are certain times when a documented Appendix I listed animal that is in the F-2 or higher generation can be imported by other than a zoo but a special arrangement will be made for this (it is very rare to happen). the same sort of thing is happening from Indo because of their Malagasy species of Chameleons. The breeders can not show proof of the origin of their breeders from before the shut down and the animals they received after the shut down are not allowed into the US because of CITES reccomendation of no importation of those species.
-----
Rob Trenor
RK Reptiles
www.rkreptiles.net
www.oldworldchameleons.com
www.ballpythonmorphs.net
www.beardedragons.com

_____

Thanks rob,

So I would assume that all of the aussie herps in our country right now were all illegally smuggled in, ie. beardeds, ackies, kimberly rock monitors, womas, jungle carpets, blackhead pythons, etc., considering there probably wasn't anybody breeding these species back in '69. Why hasn't fish and wildlife stopped the sale or breeding of these species? Have they just given up?
-----
www.geocities.com/odatriad

There are two things that you must know before you should even waste your time trying to start the paperwork process here in the US. First, can the supplier get CITIES documents, and considering there was almost no animals legally exported from Australia the chances of the EU country supplying a CITIES is doubtful. And second, the animals must be the result of captive breeding (often this means F-2, but not always), so the supplier has to be able to certify that the animals were CB.

Be careful here because people have all kinds of schemes for acquiring these documents that are not legal, and if false documents are detected at import, at minimum you will lose the animals and be out all of the costs, and at worse you could even be sent to prison (not likely without a rap-sheet, but the cost of a criminal lawyer generally starts with a $10,000 retainer!).

And Yep, all the critters you mention are technically illegal, but going through all the trouble of convicting people for these animals at this point is cost prohibitive, but some day, some smart alec is going to go to a show with a new species for sale, and leave in handcuffs. It’s just a matter of time.

Big Brother