Abstract
As of November 4th, and despite worldwide resistance, the Blue-throated macaw will be placed onto the list of species that require Federal permits for sales across State lines in the United States. Once known as the "Caninde" macaw, Ara glaucogularis, joins the list below of species that require permits for commerce from State to State. Additional red tape will apply to those that live in States where the Federal Endangered Species Act lists are used internally to regulate activities by their citizens.
The final rule containing the decision made by our U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington, DC was published in the Federal Register on October 3, 2013. It is noteworthy that the American Federation of Aviculture, Inc, the Avicultural Society of America, key biologists working with this species in Bolivia, Lora Parque Foundation of Spain, the World Parrot Trust, and many others were among those that provided scientific and trade information and warned the Service of the counter-conservation consequences of this ESA listing.
The U.S. Endangered Species Act does
not provide additional "protections" for foreign species already prohibited in trade by their native country, listed on CITES Appendix I, and protected by the Wild Bird Conservation Act of 1992. What this Act does do is tie the hands oflegitimate breeders and conservation researchers using U.S. based laboratories to process their biological samples. The Act, now considered to be more of a dinosaur than a modern conservation tool, is currently under review by Congress. There is still hope that someone will recognize the shortcomings of this law and undo the constraints set forth by this Act on foreign species. It is clearly a law that only works for native U.S. species and should only fund the habitat restoration and conservation of U.S. native species.
One thing the U.S. Endangered Species Act does seem to proliferate is lawsuits. Now commonly used as a tool to restrict pet ownership and trade, this 1972 law costs taxpayers exorbitant amounts of money every year to defend itself. It would seem logical that foreign species listed under this Act, protected by CITES and other international treaties, and legally imported into the U.S. and/or bred here, would be excluded from internal restrictions within the United States. Instead, this obvious oversight is now being used by many anti-trade, anti-pet organizations to make animal ownership more difficult.
The list of foreign species currently regulated under this Act appears below. Those annotated with an asterisk do not require Federal level permits for Interstate commerce or sales. The penalty for violating this permit requirement is stiff and includes a minimum of a $50,000 fine and jail time. Both the seller and the buyer require Federal permits for any transaction, and using your permit to buy a listed species for resale into your State is prohibited. Also the Act specifically states that using listed species as pets is inconsistent with the intent of the Act. This could be the very reason that several commonly kept parrot species are currently proposed for listing in the near future (via another anti-pet lawsuit), they include the Umbrella cockatoo, Lesser Sulphur-crested cockatoo, Red-vented Cockatoo, Hyacinth macaw, Red-fronted macaw, and others.
It is imperative that we let our representatives know how we feel about the U.S. Endangered Species Act and its negative impact. Write or call your Congressman or Senator today and tell them to remove all foreign species from the U.S. Endangered Species Act, as the law is not providing additional protections, but instead is smothering captive breeding and conservation efforts across the United States.
Now Regulated under this Act ( Common Avicultural name):
Puerto Rican Amazon Vinacious Amazon Red-browed Amazon St. Vincent's Amazon Imperial Amazon Moluccan Cockatoo *
Golden or ~een of Bavaria Conure Blue-throated Conure
Lear's Macaw
Spix's Macaw
Blue-throated Macaw
Hooded and Golden Shouldered Parakeet Turquoisine Parakeet"
Scarlet Chested Parakeet"
"These species are listed as "threatened" under the act and a special rule was enacted by the USFWS whereas interstate commerce does not require a captive-bred wildlife registration or a federal permit.