April 22, 2001
CONTRABAND
Governments Try to Halt the Smuggling of Animal Flesh
By REENA JAN
Recently, British government officials admitted that illegal meat imports
were the probable culprits responsible for its current outbreak of
foot-and-mouth disease. Stateside, Department of Agriculture inspectors
seized more than 300,000 illegal animal products in the last fiscal year,
which they immediately incinerated or ground up to eliminate the risk of
disease. Travelers try to smuggle not only the flesh of cloven-hoofed animals
from nations where foot-and-mouth disease is endemic but also meats from
vermin and bush animals that could harbor deadly viruses like Ebola. People
use all kinds of surreptitious tactics -- pork sausages hidden in diapers or
disguised as cigars in cigar boxes -- to evade authorities. "It's really
difficult confiscating meat," says Shirlene Ceballos, the port director of
Dulles International Airport near Washington. "Some people start crying,
saying it's for a sick relative who's craving a national delicacy." Others,
she jokes, "have heart attacks." Here are some of the illegal imports seized
in the last two years.

KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, NEW YORK
* Two calf's heads in checked luggage from Italy.
* Cleaned cow intestines -- for sausage making -- in a German tourist's
carry-on bag.
* Thirty pounds of live 18-inch-long Nigerian snails. "The snails themselves
were the size of an adult's arm," says Mary Benzie, the director of passenger
clearance.

O'HARE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, CHICAGO
* Monkey's head and carcass on a stick in an African passenger's carry-on
bag.
* Twenty-five-to-30-pound hams "from hip to hoof." Regularly found in
suitcases, primarily from Europe but also from Asia. "Not what you'll see on
the table for Easter dinner," says James Rennhack, the port director.
* Sheep haggis, a dish made from the lungs and heart of the animal, imported
from Scotland.
* Kielbasa and other sausages from Poland and Europe wrapped in foil and
stuffed into the toes of shoes.

GEORGE BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT, HOUSTON
* Rotting raw beef from Nigeria and Uganda.
* "Bush baby" or so-called mystery meat from Nigeria, Uganda, Niger and
Tanzania -- illegal if from a primate. (Check the hands.)
* Ham sandwich from Italy. "Even if a passenger says she is the only one who
will ever eat it, waste products from the sandwich could potentially harm
livestock," explains Anna Cherry of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service. "I hate to say it, but we don't know where that ham has been." <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/"> </A>



    >    >    >



 <A HREF="http://ads.nytimes.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/magazine/22LIST.html/0/Right5/amerit48-nyt1/alink.html/6162757368647230?_RM_REDIR_=www.ameritrade.com/o.cgi?a=eeb&o=rjg&p=/html/25mf.fhtml"> </A>