PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

Wild mammals and birds, or their parts and products, cannot be brought into the United States from a place whose laws limit taking, killing, owning, or exporting them, starting 90 days after June 17, 1930, unless a U.S. consul at the port where they left that place signs a certificate saying they were not taken or sent out illegally under that place’s laws. If someone imports them without the required certificate, customs can seize and forfeit them. The Secretary of the Treasury may give forfeited items to government agencies, museums, or societies for display or study, destroy them, or sell them (but not heads or horns), following legal rules. The rule does not apply to items already banned by other laws, to things brought in for scientific or educational use, or to migratory game birds legally brought home by genuine hunters from countries that have a treaty and an open season, as long as possession is allowed by that country and U.S. law.

Title 19, §1527

Customs Duties, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Importation prohibited

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)Forfeiture

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)Section not to apply in certain cases

The provisions of this section shall not apply in the case of— (1) Prohibited importations

(2)Scientific or educational purposes

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

(3)Certain migratory game birds

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