- Jul 2023
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www.congress.gov www.congress.gov
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(2) by amending subsection (e) to read as follows: “(e) Captive wildlife offense.— “(1) IN GENERAL.—It is unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce, or in a manner substantially affecting interstate or foreign commerce, or to breed or possess, any live animal of any prohibited wildlife species.
(e) Captive wildlife offense (1) In general Except as provided in paragraph (2), it is unlawful for any person to-
(A) import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce, or in a manner substantially affecting interstate or foreign commerce; or
(B) breed or possess;
any prohibited wildlife species.
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“(a) Breed.—The term ‘breed’ means to facilitate propagation or reproduction (whether intentionally or negligently), or to fail to prevent propagation or reproduction”.
Definition
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The United States is a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which was designed to protect species of wild fauna and flora against overexploitation through international trade.
Argument: The U.S. has a responsibility to regulate & prevent the trade of big cats as part of CITES
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Federal control of the intrastate private possession and breeding of prohibited wildlife species is essential to the effective control of the interstate incidents of traffic in prohibited wildlife species.
Argument: Federal control of intrastate possession of prohibited wildlife species (i.e., big cats) cannot be effective without control of interstate incidents of traffic of these species
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It is exceedingly difficult to distinguish between prohibited wildlife species that are possessed, bred, sold, or transported in interstate commerce from those that have not been.
Reasoning that privately own cats are essentially "fungible commodities".
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Prohibited wildlife species in private possession, or distributed intrastate, are fungible commodities that cannot be differentiated, in terms of control, from prohibited wildlife species possessed or distributed interstate.
Fungible: items that are equivalent or consist of many identical parts such that, for practical purposes, they are interchangeable.
Commodity: an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them.
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Private possession and breeding of prohibited wildlife species contributes to the interstate traffic in those species and may contribute to illegal international wildlife trade.
how private possession leads to illegal international trade
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Private possession and breeding of prohibited wildlife species have a substantial and direct effect on interstate commerce because prohibited wildlife species are frequently bred and possessed to be used in public exhibition or for sale or transfer of ownership in the exotic pet trade, and are often transported in interstate commerce for these purposes.
How private possession and breeding impacts interstate commerce and the public
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The private possession, breeding, and sale of prohibited wildlife species has a substantial and detrimental effect on the health and general welfare of the people of the United States and on the conservation of the species themselves.
This reasoning can be extrapolated to extend to a Small Cat Public Safety Act
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The global illicit trade in wildlife may be worth up to $20,000,000,000 annually and the value of legal wildlife trade in the United States was recently estimated at $2,800,000,000 annually.
What is the source of this figure?
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To amend the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to clarify provisions enacted by the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, to further the conservation of certain wildlife species, and for other purposes.
Stated purpose
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