Abstract
Since the founding of the American Federation of Aviculture eight years ago, no major piece of legislation or regulation adversely affecting aviculture has successfully yet been passed. That remarkable statement is still true today, as the U.S. Delegation to the Convention on International Trade In Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) goes to the meeting in New Delhi.
AF A was born amidst a bombardment of Federal and State legislation and regulation that threatened to destroy the promise for conservation held by the captive breeding of birds. We since have been bloodied by confrontations over Exotic Newcastle, appalled and frightened by scientifically weak and biased proposals of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, incensed at the ignorance of the U.S. Public Health Service concerning psittacosis, and yet we have somehow managed to keep the lid on, come out on top, and educate a great many government officials in the process.
The day I got the phone call, first from Marshall Meyers, then from Congressman Dannemeyer' s office, telling me the proposal to list all the psittacines on Appendix II had been dropped, I felt very relieved and very proud. Proud to be a member of AFA. I remembered why I joined AFA in the first place and why I took the job of Legislative Liaison offered to me by then AFA President, Jerry Jennings. AFA is the only organization fully committed to defending the rights of the aviculturist. It is not just a magazine. It is people working together to demand that the government and others fully understand that there is a legitimate place in this country for Aviculture and the Aviculturist and we will never accept any regulation conceived in ignorance. Our input will be solicited and seriously considered, or there will be no regulation, no matter how wellintentioned it may be.
And so it was with the U.S. Proposals to CITES which began last July. The final chapter of this very long saga cannot be
told in this article so that we may make the press deadline. The end of the story will come when the U.S. Delegation returns from New Delhi. But we have done all we can. And we were successful. Here's how it happened:
April 4, 1980 - The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service published a notice in the Federal Register calling for information to be used in preparing the U.S. proposals to amend the species lists of Endangered (Appendix I) and Threatened (Appendix II) wildlife. Individuals and organizations who felt that the political climate and conditions were right for a move to further restrict trade in certain psittacine species responded. Notably, little information was forthcoming on other orders of birds such as softbills and finches. Presumably the low visibiliry and low interest in trade in these birds was the reason, thereby indicating, once again, that the "scientific" or "biological" basis for these responses is highly suspect. Doesn't anyone care about the Hornbills? Perhaps AFA should have made some suggestions of its own at this point. In 1982, the next time we prepare for a CITES meeting, I hope knowledgeable AF A members will become involved early in the process.
July 21, 1980- On this memorable day, USFWS unveiled the potential proposals to amend the appendices to CITES in the Federal Register.
We were thunderstruck. Sixry four species of birds were proposed for listing, plus a proposal to list all remaining psittacines, not previously listed, on Appendix II, for control purposes only. A great fear ran through all who had previous experiences with similar proposals by USFWS. Right or wrong, FWS historically did exactly what it wanted to do in spite of all opposition, in spite of biological evidence to the contrary, in spite of the ultimate effect such decisions would have on the preservation of the species.
To heighten this paranoia, FWS announced in this same Notice that comments of interested patties were due by
August 20 and that the final decisions of the Service would be published on or about August 22 ! Now, the greatest idiot in the nation would have to realize that even the most competent administrator (the Watchbird Editor, for example) could not possibly read, evaluate, organize the materials, make objective, scientific decisions, write the position paper, and get it all to the printer in time for publication inside of 48 hours! As we say in Washington, it was "wired". The decisions, we felt, had already been made before the proposal was published and we were about to be taken to the cleaners once again. The anger started to well up inside of us. The so-called ''environmentalists'' who don't even know what an Ara ararauna smells like, were deciding that aviculturists were not competent to propagate it.
The flames of anger were fanned by the winds of panic-a very bad situation that leads to unhappy mistakes. I and others made some of those mistakes and I will point them out as we go along. But we had to act and act fast.
It was decided to activate the AF A Emergency Operations Plan. To the extent that the State Coordinators and Club Delegates did their job, we were successful. Unfortunately the issue was of such complicated nature, a simple telephone call was not adequate to explain what must be done. Even in written form most people have a hard time grasping and understanding what CITES is, how it affects them, the part the U.S. Endangered Species list plays in all this, etc.
So at this time we alerted the Board that they would be receiving a letter which they were to duplicate and mail to all members in this jurisdiction asking every member to write in opposition to the potential proposals. To a limited extent, this is what happened.