Paperwork for Parrots

[oochiesollie]

My brother has come upon a couple of baby parrots in the Sepik River in Papa New Guinea, and was wondering what sort of documentation would be needed as he sails from country to country. His next stop is in Palau, and he would like to make sure he is properly setup before he leaves Papa New Guinea.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by oochiesollie

My brother has come upon a couple of baby parrots in the Sepik River in Papa New Guinea, and was wondering what sort of documentation would be needed as he sails from country to country. His next stop is in Palau, and he would like to make sure he is properly setup before he leaves Papa New Guinea.

I would presume the 1st step would be to apply for an exportation of wildlife permit from the Government of Papua, New Guinea....
then Import/Export permits from every country he's gonna stop at thereafter..

[night0wl]

Its a strange, sad world where a pirate needs paperwork for his parrots...

[daddle]

Palau is not going to like those parrots. And they inspect well. He had better check carefully.

[denverd0n]

"Came upon"!?! Does that mean he bought them from someone? Or that he captured them in the wild?

If the latter he may well be guilty of a very serious crime. He would do best to simply release them.

If the former then he is probably going to need some documentation from whoever he bought them from, as well as from the PNG government.

It may be an indication of a sad world, but it is a fact that in today's world, transporting exotic pets back and forth between various countries is going to be an extremely trying exercise involving a great deal of paperwork and a lot of fees (not all of which will be the "above the table" type!).

As an example, I have a friend who brought a Macaw back from Brazil about 15 years ago. She started out trying to do it the legal way and finally gave up in frustration as the day of her departure got closer and closer, and every form she filled out seemed to spawn six more that had to be dealt with. She ended up paying bribes totaling about $800 to several different officials in Brazil in order to get her bird out along with the proper form to let her bring it into the USA.

Unless your brother is extremely attached to these parrots (as my friend is to hers), my advice would be to leave them behind.

[Doodles]

I agree with most everything denverd0n says. We have two parrots, both of which are on the endangered species list. We recently moved from the US to Thailand and getting the birds there was extremely trying and expensive. We travel back to the US each year for six months and would like to bring the parrots back but its too much of a hassle with bird flu and the import/export rules regarding endangered species. We've had them for 20+ years so we aren't about to give them up but traveling with them is now out of the question. My advice would be to leave them in PNG.

[ozskipper]

I would get whatever ownerhip/export permits PNG has first. Without them, he could be deemed to be a wildlife smuggler. Also get certificates from local vets to prove that the birds are healthy.

Each country is going to have its own quarantine rules. He is now going to have to research each country prior to leaving to find out what the requirements before entry. It sounds like more trouble than having a cat or dog on board.

But two parrots? Does he have two wooden legs too? Ok Sorry, I just had to go there me harty

Cheers
Oz

[jokinjoel]

Posting this years later but... The place to start is www.cites.org to find the CITES contact for the country he is in. And apply for export permits.

[rnjpinz]

I deal with US wildlife and from my experience, he needs to separate himself from this situation. Wildlife is considered to be a natural resource of the country. This may be considered to be smuggling.

[jeanathon]

I wonder what he did with them. Maybe oochie can tell us the rest of the story.

[jokinjoel]

RNJ- I thought as long as the local officials decide taking the birds would not significantly endanger the wild population that they could be legally become a pet and could issue export permits.

[capngeo]

+1 on CITES..... I went through holy hell with my Severe Macaw once..... and I never left the US!

I was cruising out around the Dry Tortugas, and was boarded returning to KW. The FWC guy swore I was coming from Cuba (wasn't) and he had every form of officialdom descend on me.

[Tori]

No way would he have been permitted to legally take those parrots out of PNG depending upon species it would likely have been deemed wildlife smuggling. Yes CITES is the people to contact but getting CITES permits is a long difficult process. Note we have 5 parrots on board and are getting CITES permits

[belizesailor]

Yes, really sad to see cruisers take parrots from the wild. It encourages unethical and illegal trade. And, as an owner of several parrots, it really saddens me deeply to see this. Parrots are amazingly intelligent animals and very emotionally in tune with what is going on around them. Taking parrots from the wild or trading them illegally is just one notch removed from buying and selling human children.

I cruised for a while with a fully legal and documented parrot (captive bred and hand raised) and even with all the appropriate documents it can be a pain.

I also have a parrot adopted from cruisers who foolishly bought a baby parrot from a local. They were naive and knew nothing of parrots or the legalities of traveling with them -- just thought it was cute. After they had bonded to the parrot, and it to them, it came time to leave...they then discovered the harsh legal realities and decided to leave the parrot with us...it was a very emotionally difficult time for both the cruisers and the parrot...especially the parrot...it was like an abandoned child for a long time.


To all cruisers: please don't engage in this illegal and inappropriate activity.

[jokinjoel]

Capngeo- the mindset of FWS personnel is appalling. I have been told Melanie A Raymond who works in Washington is the dried turd in the sphincter of life. You don't by any chance remember the name of the disrespectful FWS person you had to deal with do you? It seems wrong that government employees treat us so poorly.