Smuggled Bushmeat in North America Raises Health, Security Concerns

In Africa, the unsustainable bushmeat trade is wiping out wildlife including gorillas, chimpanzees, antelopes and many other species. More than one million tonnes of bushmeat is taken from Central Africa each year - that's the equivalent of more than 9 BILLION quarter pound hamburgers!

Recent reports have shown that bushmeat is being illegally imported into North America as well. BCTF Director Heather Eves was quoted in one article saying, "Hundreds if not thousands of pounds of bushmeat [are] coming into the United States every day with little or no tracking."

In addition to the threat that the bushmeat crisis poses to wildlife, it also provides a way for diseases to hitchhike around the world. Diseases that jump from wildlife to humans account for 3/4 of all emerging infections diseases, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. These include SARS, Ebola, hantavirus and many others.

BCTF is working with our members to respond to these issues in North America, while continuing our work around the world. We are developing outreach to consumer communities in North America as well as collaborating with law enforcement efforts to decrease the illegal trade in North America. The following links provide the latest information on the bushmeat trade in North America:

Bushmeat Smuggling (Video)
Mara Schiavocampo, for Current TV
5 July 2007
Interviews with airport inspectors, BCTF's Director, and restaurateurs tell the story how bushmeat gets to the U.S. and why.

Bushmeat: Curse of the Monkey's Paw
Russell Goldman, ABCnews.com
15 March 2007
This article includes statements from BCTF Director Heather E. Eves, including: "Carrying it in duty-free bags through customs, in luggage, shipping it in the mail and carrying it on their bodies. On the commercial level, shipments are often embedded in dried fish," she said... "It's getting to the point in many places where there's little wildlife left other than rodents," said Heather Eves of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force. "We've entered a phase in the global market that open wildlife markets are indeed a global health threat." ...All of the experts who spoke to ABCNEWS.com agreed that enforcement at America's borders alone would not stem the trade. Travelers need to be educated of the risks involved in bringing bushmeat into the United States, and Africans need to be given the tools to produce sustainable and safe alternatives to bushmeat.

Smuggled Bushmeat Poses U.S. Health Threat
Richard Knox, NPR's Morning Edition
12 March 2007
Nina Morano of the CDC and Billy Karesh of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Field Veterinary program are interviewed about the health risks of importing bushmeat into the U.S.

Making a case for 'sacred meat'
Anthony M. Destefano, Newsday
27 Feb 2007
This article examines Mamie Manneh's claim that bushmeat is a religious right. According to fellow congregants at her church, "Bushmeat is sacred to us because it is the free, wild animals of our homeland, and these animals are gifts from God and filled with spiritual power," the congregants said. "When we eat the bushmeat, we get closer to God and we take in that spiritual power to our bodies." The article also includes statements from federal officials regarding the health risks of bushmeat.

Bushmeat rationale: It's sacred meal
Frank Donnelly, Staten Island Advance
24 Feb 2007
Mamie Manneh Jefferson, 39, has filed a motion in Brooklyn federal court to dismiss charges of smuggling African bushmeat into the country. She contends that she eats bushmeat as part of her religious beliefs, and that it is a protected right.

Bushmeat Report
BBC The World/PRI
January 26, 2007
The World's Jori Lewis reports on the growing U-S market for the meat of wild animals from Africa. Antelope and monkey meat are commonly eaten in parts of Africa. But "bushmeat" is ending up for sale in the United States and that has conservationists worried. Includes an interview with BCTF Director Heather Eves.

Shark-Smuggling Pastor Catches One Year In Prison - Pastor Attempted To Poach And Smuggle Leopard Sharks US Attorney Reports
LawFuel
January 23, 2007
OAKLAND- US Legal News - United States Attorney Kevin V.  Ryan announced that Kevin Thompson, 48, of San Leandro, California, was sentenced yesterday afternoon to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $100,000 restitution for his role in catching thousands of undersized juvenile leopard sharks out of the San Francisco Bay and selling them to aquarium dealers in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

Further Information: A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S.  Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. 

Meat is ethnic, exotic--and illegal
By Adam Goldman, Associated Press
December 4, 2006
NEW YORK -- A food safety inspector noticed an interesting special posted in the front window of a market in Queens: 12 beefy armadillos. In Brooklyn, inspectors found 15 pounds of iguana meat at a West Indian market and 200 pounds of cow lungs for sale at another store. A West African grocery in Manhattan sold smoked rodent meat from a refrigerated display case.

Inspectors Stake Out Smuggled Animals
By Margaret Ebrahim, Associated Press
November 28, 2006
Photos
Wildlife inspector Bryan Landry can spot threats everywhere at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. A backpack carried off a flight from Nigeria contains plastic bags of meat from the bush that could harbor the lethal Ebola virus.

Exotic Pets in U.S. may pose health risk
Margaret Ebrahim and John Solomon, Associated Press
November 27, 2006
Exotic animals captured in the wild are streaming into the U.S. by the millions with little or no screening for disease, leaving Americans vulnerable to a virulent outbreak that could rival a terrorist act.

Bush meat makes city's dining scene: Toronto ranks among top illegal markets for cuts from primates, other wild animals
By OMAR EL AKKAD, The Globe and Mail
November 18, 2006
Toronto's dining scene is well known for its constellation of delicious dishes from around the world. But according to recent research by an American wildlife biologist, the city also has a culinary dark side: a bustling trade in bush meat, making it a prime destination for thousands of kilograms of slaughtered wild animals smuggled from Africa.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agriculture Specialists Intercept Prohibited Bushmeat from African Countries
Press Release: US Customs and Border Protection
July 10, 2006
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport have seized approximately 62 pounds of prohibited bushmeat to date this year.

Bushmeat surveyed in Western cities: Illegally hunted animals turn up in markets from New York to London. 
Nature.com
Researcher Justin Brashares recently reported evidence that illegal bushmeat markets exist in New York, London, Brussels, Paris, Toronto, Montreal and Chicago. At the annual conference of the Society for Conservation Biology, Brashares showed that about 6,000 kilograms of illegally hunted meat moved through these markets each month. Trade to Western cities represents a small part of the overall trade, but demonstrates that there is a strong demand for illegally hunted meat.

Smuggling dangerous delicacies
Staten Island Advance
A Staten Island faces charges for illegally importing bushmeat to sell out of her home. A shipment of 65 pieces of bushmeat – including monkey and antelope limbs – was discovered buried beneath a layer of smoked fish. This court case is still pending and now scheduled to be continued in fall 2006.

Bushmeat: Dinner Or Deadly Disease
CBS News
1 August 2003
Video
U.S. sale of illegal, exotic meats, known as "bushmeat," has health officials predicting more dangerous disease outbreaks like SARS or monkey pox.