A federal appeals court has clipped the wings of some exotic bird lovers who sought to import two species of parrots.
In an illuminating visit to the rarefied realms of the Wild Exotic Bird Conservation Act, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the rejection of petitions to import the cactus conure and the green form of the lineolated parakeet.
“As it turns out, a bird in the hand is not worth as much as two in the bush,” mused Judge Robin Rosenbaum.
Citing the law’s “stated [goal] of promoting the conservation of exotic birds in the wild,” Rosenbaum and the two other members of the three-judge panel opined that the law accommodated only petitions for importing bird species as a whole rather than on a country-by-country basis, as the two organizations had sought.
