By JAMES L. CUMMINS
Special to The Sun-Sentinel
A company in the United States purchases paper made from pulp sourced from illegal logging practices in the country of origin. A commercial fishing company imports a shipment of fish harvested in violation of that country’s fishing regulations. A hunting outfitter allows his non-resident client to take an elk for which the client has no valid hunting license.
What do all the above have in common? They are all violations of the Lacey Act. As the country’s oldest national wildlife protection statute, along with the many added necessary amendments, the Lacey Act is still a powerful weapon in the fight against illegal trade, possession and transportation of wildlife, fish and plants.
The Lacey Act was first introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives by Iowa Congressman and Boone and Crockett Club regular member John Fletcher Lacey in 1900. Lacey was an eight-term congressman from Iowa’s sixth congressional district. Born in Virginia, he moved to Iowa with his parents in 1855. Lacey considered this trip through the wild prairie to be one of the most memorable times of his life. It was during these formative years that he developed a keen interest in nature and an environmental awareness that carved a deep concern for conservation matters.
As a result, Lacey’s intentions for this law were to broaden the powers of the Department of Agriculture by allowing the authorization to introduce and preserve game and wild songbirds, the prevention of irresponsible introduction of foreign birds and animals, and the addition of state laws for the protection of game and birds. In its original form, the Lacey Act addressed the growing scarcity of domestic birds, the international trade of bird feathers, the introduction of harmful avian species, and the growing problem of interstate merchandising of illegally killed and transported wildlife.
Intended to enhance, rather than replace, state laws, this act made it illegal to deliver for shipment, or ship parts or bodies, of any wild animals or birds killed in violation of state law; required clear markings and labeling of all interstate shipments of wildlife; and removed federal restrictions on the states’ ability to regulate the sale of wildlife within their borders by subjecting all game animals and birds entering a state to the state’s laws.
There is much to be told of the evolution of the Lacey Act over the last century, but presently it has come to encompass and prohibit two general types of activity. It first prohibits the failure to mark, as well as falsify documentation for, most wildlife shipments and provides civil and criminal penalties for such violations. Secondly, it serves to prohibit trade in wildlife, fish or plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold.
It is hard to imagine all the species of wildlife, fish and plants we would have missed out on had it not been for the concerned, forward-thinking conservatives of the past.
James L. Cummins is executive director of Wildlife Mississippi, a nonprofit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources.
