A Virginia woman traveled to Kenya. She tried to bring giraffe and zebra bones home with her.
A Virginia woman tried to bring giraffe and zebra bones into the United States after telling authorities she found the objects during a trip to Kenya.
United States Customs and Border Protection agricultural specialists discovered the bones during a baggage examination last month at Washington Dulles International Airport, officials confirmed in a news release.
The woman, who authorities are not naming because she was not charged with a crime, said she found the bones in Kenya and kept them as souvenirs.
CBP officials coordinated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whose inspectors said the bones violated parts of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act. That legislation “combats illegal trafficking of wildlife, fish and plants,” according to the Department of Agriculture.
“I can appreciate travelers wanting to keep souvenirs of their vacations, but those souvenirs could violate United States or international law, or potentially expose our families, pets or our nation’s agriculture industries to serious animal or plant diseases,” Kim Der-Yeghiayan, acting area port director of CBP’s Area Port of Washington, D.C., said in the Friday news release.
The woman was initially referred to a secondary examination at the Washington, D.C.- area airport because she declared that she had a small twig from an Acacia tree. She later amended the declaration to include the bones after her bags were X-rayed.
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The woman was released after agricultural specialists took possession of the bones.
The incident comes after the Transportation Security Administration found a dog in a carry-on backpack at a Wisconsin airport earlier this month. And last month, a cat was found inside a traveler’s checked luggage at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Virginia woman tried to bring giraffe, zebra bones into US from Kenya
