Customs agents at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport seized and destroyed a box of giraffe poop after a woman brought the ~dropping~ to the U.S. from Kenya. According to U.S. Customer and Border Protection, the Iowa woman was selected for inspection on September 29 by agriculture specialists from the customs agency.
She told them she was in the possession of giraffe poopy, though she probably said it in a more elegant way. Anyway, her grand plan was to use the crap to make a necklace. She even said that she had used moose poop to make jewellery in the past. C’mon now, brother.
According to CBP, the doodoo was destroyed with steam sterilization in accordance with the United States Department of Agriculture destruction protocol.
The small box seems to contain about 14 droppings and that one weird ass looking thing in the middle. It makes me uncomfortable. They aren’t exactly, big as CBP was kind enough to provide a brown Sharpie for scale. Thanks, fellas.
“There is a real danger with bringing fecal matter into the U.S.,” LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, CBP’s Chicago field director, said in a statement. “If this person had entered the U.S. and had not declared these items, there is a high possibility a person could have contracted a disease from this jewellery and developed a serious health issue.”
The agency says Kenya is currently being impacted by African swine fever, classical swine fever, Newcastle disease, foot and mouth disease, and swine vesicular disease. Can those things be carried in giraffe poopy? Who’s to say? But something definitely could be. CBP says people are allowed to bring back animal dung as long as they obtain a Veterinary Service Permit.
The woman who started this whole situation will not face any sanctions because she declared the poopoo to the government and surrendered it to customs officials. If she didn’t do that – and just snuck the shit past agents at the airport – she could have faced a penalty between $US300 and $US1,000. It would have been a small price to pay for crap jewellery.
Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection