Turtle soup anyone?

Tony B. oldfart at networkidl.net
Fri Feb 9 05:50:00 PST 2001


The gentleman concerned was certainly not lying and had the shell for years,looking at the item it was obviously not fresh (polished, long dried out etc) The idiotic part was the total loss of interest in finding drugs/laundered money/smuggled aliens or whatever else they were supposed to be searching for once this poor inoffensive turtle shell had been spotted. Perhaps potential drug smugglers should take note and carry a turtle shell or two!! Also slightly disturbing to a British citizen, they were operating from a British warship and I am unaware of any turtle mania in Britain, also if at sea on my own yacht I would have had various pieces of ivory on board collected by my forebears in the days of the British Raj, would these engender the same paranoia?? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Kosenko" <kosenko at netwood.net> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 7:38 AM Subject: Re: Turtle soup anyone?


> Marco Anglesio wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 7 Feb 2001, Tony B. wrote:
> > > wild over (called for book to be sent over to identify species) was an
old
> > > turtle shell which they warned the owner could not be taken back to US
> > > despite his protestations that it had been purchased years earlier
"in" the
> > > US.
> >
> > Consider that there's no "made in" label on a turtle or any means to
> > validate the claim the owner made. The claim that something has been
> > previously imported or bought in the US is no doubt the most frequent
> > excuse of people seeking to bring things into the country, whether in
> > violation of import restrictions or merely to avoid paying duty.
> >
> > Unless there's a way to document the purchase and possession of the
turtle
> > in the country (for example, a video or photograph of the ship's
contents,
> > as are made for insurance purposes), then they'd be complete idiots to
> > accept the owner's story.
>
> Precisely. Although this is a "little" issue, I
> like the clear thinking in your explanation of the
> rationale for the authorities doing what they
> did. There is so much sloppy logic when
> right-wingers like Rush Limbaugh, say, get their
> hands on something like this and treat it as an
> "example" of how "left wing wackos" are destroying
> "common sense" (although I have known some who
> do).
>
> Another issue might be why someone is carrying
> around a whole turtle shell at sea in the first
> place. Normally such items are brought in to be
> processed into things (combs, say, or various
> kinds of adornments). Someone bringing in a WHOLE
> turtle shell ought to raise suspicions, and maybe
> it WAS "old," but not all coast guard personnel
> can be expected to be experts in turtle forensics.
>
> It may well be that the man was not lying, but the
> reason for the law is a little larger than the
> man's personal property rights, and hence if he
> (and the authorities) can't prove that it isn't
> contraband, the action was regretable but
> necessary.
>
> In the original post there were these two issues:
> (1) the Florida law regarding autopsy and
> incineration of endangered species, and (2) eating
> of the turtle killed accidentally.
>
> We can certainly understand why the autopsy. The
> cause of death was known in this case (a boating
> accident), but it is not always known, and
> biologists want to know WHAT is endangering the
> species. Incineration is probably mandated to
> discourage "trophy taking" and other forms of
> "use," not as some "ritual cremation." So the
> writer's talk of "last rites" may just be
> hyperbole, although perhaps some kinds of
> environmentalists WOULD think of it as "last
> rites."
>
> Eating the turtle doesn't seem especially to have
> violated the spirit of the law (that endangered
> species should not be DELIBERATELY killed for
> use), since the animal died by accident. But it
> seems to have violated the "no use" letter of it.
> If I were a judge, I wouldn't toss them in jail
> for it.
>
> Peter Kosenko
>
>
> >
> > Marco
> >
> >
,--------------------------------------------------------------------------.
> > > Marco Anglesio | Optimism is the content
<
> > > mpa at the-wire.com | of small men in high places.
<
> > > http://www.the-wire.com/~mpa | --F. Scott Fitzgerald
<
> >
`--------------------------------------------------------------------------'
>
> --
> =============================================================
> Peter Kosenko
> Email: mailto:kosenko at netwood.net
> URL: http://www.netwood.net/~kosenko
> Netwood Design Center URL: http://ndc.netwood.net/
> =============================================================
> "Man is a rational animal. He can think up a
> reason for anything he wants to
> believe."--Benjamin Franklin



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