U.S. Wildlife Law Enforcement a “Headless Horseman”
April 2007
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is part of the Department of the Interior (USDI). One of its branches is the Division of Law Enforcement (DLE). The division is responsible for enforcing the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and many other federal laws governing hunting and interstate as well as international commerce in wildlife and wildlife products.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER, www.peer.org)
is a national alliance of local, state, and federal resource professionals and works to improve the ability of law enforcement professionals to accomplish their missions.
On 20 February 2007, PEER issued a press release with the headline, “Federal Wildlife Enforcement is Leaderless and in Decline.”
PEER quoted a report on wildlife law enforcement by the Office of the Inspector General (IG) of the Interior Department. Each cabinet department has an IG office, which is charged with analyzing the performance of federal government agencies. (See http://www.ignet.gov/igs/faq1.html for more information on the role of IG’s as independent monitors of government performance.)
The USDI IG reported that DLE’s staffing consisted of 208 special agents assigned to investigating cases, 111 wildlife inspectors, and 166 support personnel. This number is totally inadequate to protect our nation’s and the world’s wildlife, especially since there is an international epidemic of wildlife crime.
PEER also compiled and released Justice Department figures that the Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) had obtained by using the Freedom of Information Act. The figures showed that
prosecution of wildlife crime cases was in a state of decline. PEER commented,
A look at the enforcement record during the Bush administration appears to bear out agents’ concerns. According
to Department of Justice figures, criminal referrals of wildlife offenses from all Interior agencies, principally FWS, dropped by more than half since 2000. During the same period, federal prosecutions filed on these cases fell by more than a third (42%).
In 2005, just 455 criminal prosecutions were filed, of which 76 percent were actually prosecuted. In 2006 the number dropped to 331 cases filed, of which only 74 percent were prosecuted. The average prison sentence during both these years was just one month. This means that any sentences were short and that most offenders either paid fines and/or were put on probation.
To complicate matters, Kevin Adams, Chief of Law Enforcement, was removed from his position in October 2006. He has not yet been replaced (Agent Benito Perez is serving as Acting Chief). This is why PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch’s compares DLE to a “headless horseman.”
In 1998 PEER conducted a survey of all FWS special agents. More than half of the agents reported first-hand experience of managers “interfering with an investigation in order to protect a prominent individual or powerful group.” One third of the agents in that survey cited cases of FWS managers having “compromised ongoing investigations by contacting the target” to cut a deal limiting or excusing liability.
Ruch concluded,
Federal wildlife protection appears to be moving in the wrong direction at a time when the need for effective enforcement of these laws has grown more acute.
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Some U.S. Primate Cases
1. In February 1990 six baby orangutans (who became known as “The Bangkok Six”) were found at Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport stuffed into crates labeled “Birds.” IPPL sent an experienced caregiver to Bangkok to help care for the traumatized infant apes. Because of our distrust of law enforcement authorities, we conducted our own investigation and identified several members of an international smuggling ring. Next we requested the USFWS Division of Law Enforcement to investigate the role of a U.S. animal dealer named Matthew Block of Miami in the transaction.
Block was indicted in 1992 and pled guilty to felony conspiracy in 1993. He was sentenced to 13 months in prison. Warrants were issued for several non-U.S. nationals involved in this cruel deal, including individuals in the Netherlands, then-Yugoslavia, and Singapore.
2. In 1997 IPPL learned of a series of monkey shipments that reached the United States from Indonesia via Chicago. The monkeys were consigned to the firm LABS of Virginia. LABS maintained a monkey breeding facility and import station in South Carolina. Among the animals shipped were infant monkeys three to four weeks old and older monkeys shipped on false “captive-bred” documents. IPPL requested that the USFWS investigate a series of transactions that took place in April and May 1997.
In 2002 three company officials, including LABS President David Taub, were indicted on an assortment of charges. In 2004 the case ended with a plea bargain. Charges were unfortunately dropped against the company officials. However, the company was assessed a $500,000 fine.
3. In 2006 during a search of a Staten Island garage, U.S. federal agents made a disturbing find: 33 pieces of African bushmeat, including primate parts. A Liberian immigrant named Mamie Jefferson has been charged with
bushmeat smuggling and may receive a fine or prison sentence.
Biologist Justin Brashares of the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a network of sources on bushmeat. Their reports indicate that about 1,000 pounds of bushmeat, which is usually smoked before it is shipped from Africa, makes its way each month into the West African ethnic markets in New York City. Nationwide, Brashares says, about 15,000 pounds of bushmeat come into the country each month. Importation of primate parts without the proper export permits would be a violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). IPPL considers it very unlikely that any of the imported meat is accompanied by a CITES permit.
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What You Can Do
Please write senators and congressmen expressing your concern about the sorry state of U.S. wildlife law enforcement and requesting increased funding and appointment of more wildlife law enforcement personnel. U.S.
readers can obtain online the addresses of their senators) and
(their representatives .
Overseas readers should contact the U.S. Embassy in their country of residence (go to http://usembassy.state.gov/ for a list) to request that the U.S. help them protect their nation’s wildlife by being very strict in regard to enforcing laws and treaties controlling importation of wildlife.
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