§1527 — Title 19 Customs Duties | U.S. Code

Summary

If a foreign country, province, or other local government limits or bans taking, killing, owning, or exporting any wild mammal or bird, or any part or product of one (raw or made), then after ninety days after June 17, 1930, those animals or their parts cannot be brought into the United States, directly or indirectly, unless a U.S. consul at the port where they left issues a certificate saying they were not taken or exported in violation of that foreign law. Items imported in violation can be seized and forfeited under customs law. The Secretary of the Treasury may then place forfeited items with federal or state agencies, societies, or museums for display or study, destroy them, or sell them (but not heads or horns), under rules he sets. The rule does not apply to articles already banned by other laws, to imports for scientific or educational purposes, or to migratory game birds lawfully brought home by hunters when allowed by both countries.

Title 19, §1527

Customs Duties — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)If the laws or regulations of any country, dependency, province, or other subdivision of government restrict the taking, killing, possession, or exportation to the United States, of any wild mammal or bird, alive or dead, or restrict the exportation to the United States of any part or product of any wild mammal or bird, whether raw or manufactured, no such mammal or bird, or part or product thereof, shall, after the expiration of ninety days after June 17, 1930, be imported into the United States from such country, dependency, province, or other subdivision of government, directly or indirectly, unless accompanied by a certification of the United States consul, for the consular district in which is located the port or place from which such mammal or bird, or part or product thereof, was exported from such country, dependency, province, or other subdivision of government, that such mammal or bird, or part or product thereof, has not been acquired or exported in violation of the laws or regulations of such country, dependency, province, or other subdivision of government.

(b)Any mammal or bird, alive or dead, or any part or product thereof, whether raw or manufactured, imported into the United States in violation of the provisions of the preceding subdivision shall be subject to seizure and forfeiture under the customs laws. Any such article so forfeited may, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury and under such regulations as he may prescribe, be placed with the departments or bureaus of the Federal or State Governments, or with societies or museums, for exhibition or scientific or educational purposes, or destroyed, or (except in the case of heads or horns of wild mammals) sold in the manner provided by law.

(c)The provisions of this section shall not apply in the case of—

(1)Articles the importation of which is prohibited under the provisions of this chapter, or of section 42(a) of title 18, or of any other law;

(2)Wild mammals or birds, alive or dead, or parts or products thereof, whether raw or manufactured, imported for scientific or educational purposes;

(3)Migratory game birds (for which an open season is provided by the laws of the United States and any foreign country which is a party to a treaty with the United States, in effect on the date of importation, relating to the protection of such migratory game birds) brought into the United States by bona fide sportsmen returning from hunting trips in such country, if at the time of importation the possession of such birds is not prohibited by the laws of such country or of the United States.

Editorial Notes

Codification In subsec. (c)(1), “section 42(a) of title 18” substituted for “section 241 of the Criminal Code [18 U.S.C. 391]” on authority of act June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 683, the first section of which enacted Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure.

§1527 Importation of wild mammals and birds in violation of foreign law

Summary

Title 19, §1527

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Citations & Metadata