>Well Kathy, what do you do if you end up owning birds that were smuggled?
>What I'm saying is that no necesaryly you know were they come from.
Well, it's tough to prove on both sides. I have a wild-caught conure who
WAS banded (until an overzealous vet removed her quarantine band without
my permission!). I also have two adult DOMESTIC conures whose breeders
never bothered to band them as babies. *I* know where all three of these
birds came from originally, but I'd have to prove that to the government
somehow. On the other hand, the government would also have to prove that
they knew the birds were smuggled.
I suspect that if you were videotaped associating with, or buying birds
from, a known smuggler (or some other such scenario), it would be
harder to prove that birds in your possession were not smuggled.
>pro.. Or it could mean that they were smuggled. I personally think that some
>states have too many unfair rules for both the fanciers and the birds
>themselves. But we as humans, simply allow just about any law thrown to us
>in wich we allways end up loosing without much if any complaints. I'm also
>sure that its going to get worst for the fanciers and breeders.
I'm sure it will get worse. We, as aviculturists (pet owners, hobbyist
breeders and commercial breeders alike) ALL need to be aware of which
laws are being worked on in state and federal government, so we're not
surprised. We need to speak up about unfair laws BEFORE they're in
place. There's enough bird people out here in the US that if we all
wrote letters to the government, we'd have their attention in a
heartbeat.
It's easier to change it if it's not LAW yet. This is why it's so
necessary to belong to groups like the AFA--they have people in
Washington watching everything that could affect birds and bird
ownership. We need people like that in every state capitol, doing the
same thing.
--Kathy
 * SLMR 2.1a * 
--- Silver Xpress Mail System       
---------------