Sedated, injured, even dead: Exotic bird smuggling cases underscore a problem at the border
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Two San Diego men have been sentenced for smuggling vulnerable birds into the United States, with one heading to prison and the other getting hit with thousands in fines.Ricardo Alonzo was sentenced to three months in prison for smuggling 17 birds — two red-lored Amazon parrots, five yellow-crowned Amazon parrots and 10 Burrowing parakeets — into the U.S.without quarantining them to prevent the spread of disease, officials with the federal Department of Justice said in a news release.In a second case, a federal judge ordered San Ysidro resident Carlos Abundez to pay $74,330 for smuggling 14 sedated keel-billed toucans in the dashboard of his Volkswagen Passat, the government said.
Some of the birds suffered injuries, including broken tails and a broken leg.The two cases provide the latest glimpse into a persistent problem plaguing the border: exotic birds — many native to Mexico or Latin America — being squirreled away deep inside vehicles or even a suspect’s clothing.In October, a Tijuana man was indicted after officers found two emaciated and potentially sedated orange-fronted parakeets stuffed in his underwear.
In June, a 24-year-old was detained after officers found seven Amazon parrots in a cardboard box on his passenger floorboard.Two months before that, authorities arrested a man after concluding he had smuggled six birds in his boots and six more in his car — two of them dead.Lawyers for Alonzo and Abundez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Mike Parr, president of the American Bird Conservancy, a nonprofit devoted to the conservation of bird habitat, said he is not surprised by some of the birds being trafficked.
Captive parrots have become habituated to humans and popular with pet owners, he said.“They’re decorative.They make good pets.
They talk.People just have an affinity for parrots,” said Parr, who also co-wrote “Parrots: A ...