>
>
> <You'll be glad to know that the confiscated
> plants have since been given a good home, on public land>
>
>
> Gratified to hear that, but how often does that really happen with
> confiscated plants? Wildlife management people in Holly Shelter say
> that most confiscated plants are counted (to assess fines) then thrown
> out! (ugh) .. is that true?
>
If it is true, I find it difficult to blame the enforcement
agencies--after all, they didn't collect the plants/animals illegally, but
are forced to clean up the mess and use some judgement in a real quandary.
Should they replant the plants/release the animals, and take the chance of
introducing disease into wild populations and altering local gene pools,
should they distribute the plants/animals to approved cultivation
facilities (botantical gardens)/zoos knowing that these repositories are
quickly saturated, should they destroy the confiscated specimens and court
terrible publicity and criticism, even though that is probably their
ultimate fate anyway, or should they distribute them to all interested
people and thus assume some culpability in the sort of activity that led
to the illegal collections in the first place. There would be no such
quandary if the original illegal collections/improperly documented
export-/importations hadn't happened. In the VFT case, I think that the
blame lies entirely with those who collected the plants.....
Sean Barry