Customs and Border Protection
Agricultural specialists with U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport seized a small box containing giraffe fecal material.
CNN
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Customs workers at a Minnesota airport discovered that a traveler brought a unique souvenir in her luggage: giraffe poop.
The passenger arrived at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport from Kenya on September 29, According to a press release from US Customs and Border Protection.
“The passenger advertised giraffe droppings and said she had obtained giraffe droppings in Kenya and was planning to make a necklace,” the statement read.
The traveler said she had previously used moose feces to make similar jewelry at her home in Iowa, according to customs officials.
The agency’s agricultural specialists “seized the bin, and the feces were disposed of by steam sterilization” according to protocol, the statement said.
LaFonda Dr. said: “There is a real risk of feces being brought into the United States,” Sutton Burke, director of field operations at the agency’s field office in Chicago, said in the statement. “If this person had entered the United States and had not declared these items, there is a high probability that the person would become ill from this jewelry and suffer serious health problems.”
The statement said that bringing “ruminant feces” into the United States requires obtaining a permit from the veterinary services. The agency noted that Kenya suffers from African swine fever, classical swine fever, Newcastle disease, foot-and-mouth disease, and swine vesicular disease.
Giraffes live in 27 of Kenya’s 47 counties. According to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. The foundation said the disease played an inexplicable role in the decline in giraffe numbers across the country.