Sec. 2. Findings
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/bill/113/hr/1998/ih/section-2A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds the following: 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. The illegal trade in prohibited wildlife species (as defined in section 2(g) of the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 ( 16 U.S.C. 3371(g) ) stimulates demand and expands markets in which those species can be illegally sold. 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.
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. Private possession and breeding of prohibited wildlife species contributes to the interstate traffic in those species and may contribute to illegal international wildlife trade.
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. 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. 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.
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.
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U.S. Code