Legal News

Elephant Teeth, Monkey Hands, Seahorses & the Law

By Dan Slater

We here at the Law Blog usually go in for traditional medicine, though we’ve really no reason to doubt the healing powers of elephant teeth, monkey hands, gecko, antelope horn, seahorses and even snake gall.

This Asian elephant tooth is one of the more than 5,000 piece of illegally smuggled wildlife seized as part of this investigation. Credit: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Whether animal parts such as these are legal to import and sell in the U.S. is another question. That was the lesson learned recently by Pa Lor, a Laotian-American woman who became a shaman before moving to Minnesota. In 2005, authorities nabbed Lor at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport when she returned from Laos with more than 1,300 pieces of illegally smuggled wildlife in her luggage, including primate and elephant parts. Yesterday, her lawyer, Andrea George, told a federal judge that it made sense that Lor — who is “approximately” 86 years old — be spared jail time for illegally smuggling wildlife to sell at a market in St. Paul.

That argument registered with the U.S. Attorney’s office, which agreed to a deal recommending probation with some conditions, but it didn’t make sense to the District judge, Joan Ericksen. Here’s the story from the StarTribune.

Ericksen sentenced Lor to two months in a halfway house, three months under home confinement and two years’ probation. She also prohibited Lor from selling anything during at least the first year of her probation. The judge wasn’t buying Lor’s argument that the animal parts were medicinal. “To the extent that you were dealing these animal parts for drug purposes, you were a drug dealer,” the judge reportedly said.

Ericksen later sentenced Lor’s daughter, Tia Yang, to five months of home confinement, two years’ probation and a $9,000 fine for helping her mother bring illegal animal products — many of which come from protected species — into the country.

In a statement on the Web site of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Sheila O’Connor, a special agent who worked on Lor’s case, said:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not making any judgment on people’s beliefs. I sometimes wear a crucifix around my neck because of what I believe. I know people who carry a rabbit foot for luck. I usually make myself of bowl of chicken soup when I get a cold. I can’t call another person’s beliefs any stranger than mine.

However, my desire to have chicken soup is not causing chickens to go extinct. The soup has been legally transported and inspected. I am not knowingly, or unknowingly breaking any laws. People who illegally import wildlife are breaking United States laws, International laws and driving species to extinction. I can accept why people use these items, but it doesn’t make it right, and it doesn’t make it legal.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 14, 2009 (boomark / email).