On Nov. 16 Interpol Agent Stuart MacKay advised ;-)

> Mike Patrick informed us about the contents of his freezer. Be careful about
> saying this sort of thing in public. As far as I know passive collecting
> is illegal - you need a scientific permit to recover birds no matter how or
> where you came across them.

Welllll, ummm, ahhhh... With all due respect (and Stuart deserves much) I
rather resent this sort of "overkill" attitude. Yes the laws are in place for
very good reasons, and you had better believe that I wouldn't even have
touched a dead peregrine falcon or bald eagle. Also, Mike Donahue has a much
more appealing approach to the issue - giving names and numbers of where to
donate the find (so you can bust me if I've still got it next week :-).

What really gets my goat is the point about picking up, and *keeping* feathers.
It's pretty simple to see the difference between discarded, worn, flight
feathers (and just a few unmatching ones in a person's possession) that an
appreciator has picked up vs. the pile of feathers a poacher would have. Not
to mention that very, very few people would be poaching non-game birds without
trying to sell what they are collecting. In other words, I'm asserting that
using a little common sense will keep an aficionado of nature out of trouble
with the authorities, and not force us to leave the occasional hawk feather
to blow in the wind.

While I'm at it, I would like to contradict the attitude that the Native
Americans practice of collecting animals for ceremonial purposes is immoral:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1) they DO have a legitimate cultural claim to these practices
2) they also have a legitimate *moral* claim to these practices - under their
stewardship of this land there were apparently very, VERY few animals
driven to the brink (or over the edge) of extinction - and certainly not
egrets, eagles, wolves, lions, grizzelies, etc.
3) as WE (collective modern americans) learn to have such respect for our
environment (I think we tweets already do) these issues will decline in
significance -- emphasis on this being a process well in place :-))))

With that said, I'll be toeing the line!


--
Michael Patrick - Staff Engineer
University of Washington, Radiation Oncology, Box 356043
1959 NE Pacific St.
Seattle, WA. 98195
mike at radonc.washington.edu
(206) 548-4536