WASHINGTON — Defeathered raw chicken bodies and pieces of prohibited African tusk ivory recently were seized in local airports by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
On April 22, a passenger traveling to Dulles International Airport from Vietnam claimed as baggage a cooler that contained 20 bluish-gray and black raw chickens. The birds appeared fully intact, but were defeathered.
The U.S. generally prohibits unregulated importation of raw poultry from areas where avian influenza and Exotic Newscastle disease are known to occur.
The birds were seized and incinerated, according to a CBP news release.
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Black-skinned raw chickens seized at Dulles on April 22. (Courtesy U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
On April 25, a customs agriculture dog named Trooper sniffed out several pieces of illegal ivory jewelry from a 57-year-old Nigerian man’s bag at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, customs officials say.
The jewelry — two carved bracelets and a necklace made of bone and ivory — was confiscated along with a carved elephant tusk. The man was allowed to continue his travels.
The pieces were made of banned ivory, which can come from poaching endangered African elephants, says the CBP news release.
Citing a 2012 report by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), CBP says elephant poaching has risen to its worst levels in a decade and ivory seizures are at their highest since 1989.
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Banned ivory jewelry seized at BWI on April 25. (Courtesy U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.)
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