>Under II. Exceptions/exemptions of the ESA, part D: Loans and gifts, reads:
>
>Lawfully taken and held endangered and threatened species may be shipped
>interstate as a bona fide gift or loan if there is no barter, credit, other
>form of compenstaion, or intent to profit or gain... Documentation of such
>an activity should accompany the shipment.
>
>[Trading would seem to be illegal based on this definition. For lawfully
>taken, it must have been collected with the proper permits, or grandfathered
>- see next]
>
>Part E: Pre-Act Wildlife
>
>[everyone had better read this!]
>
>Species held in captivity or controlled environment - Section 10 of the Act
>states that Section 9 provisions do not apply to activities involving
>endangered species which were held in captivity or in a controlled
>environment on December 28, 1973, or the dtae of the Federal Register
>publication of listing, which ever is later, provided that the purposes of
>such holding and any subsequent holdings were not contrary to the purposes
>of the Act and that the wildilife was not held in the course of a commercial
>activity.
>
>[grandfather clause - if you have endangered species in a collection before
>they were listed, you can keep them, but you cannot trade or sell them
>because...]
>
>E continues [emphasis mine]...
>
>Note that commerce activity of ANY kind (including intrastate) VOIDS ANY
>PRE-ACT STATUS. EVEN THE MERE OFFER FOR SALE REMOVES THE PRE-ACT STATUS.
 
 
 
 
Sorry, I hit the send button before I was through.
 
By E of the Act, an exempt specimen becomes illegal as soon as you trade or
sell it REGARDLESS of when it was collected.
 
Furthermore, D gives a definition of 'commercial activity:'
 
1. Purchase or sale
2. Trade of one species for another
3. Trade of one sex for the other
 
But the following are NOT considered commercial:
 
1. transport with no intention to sell
2. breeding loan
3. trade of like species
4. gift
5. donation
 
*  G Thomas Watters               *
*  Ohio Biological Survey &       *
*  Aquatic Ecology Laboratory     *
*  Ohio State University          *
*  1315 Kinnear Rd.               *
*  Columbus, OH 43212 USA         *
*  v:614-292-6170 f:614-292-0181  *
 
"The world is my oyster, except for months with an "R" in them" - Firesign
Theater
 
"A paranoid is a man who knows a little of what's going on" - William Burroughs