Customs seizes box of giraffe poop at Minnesota airport

MINNESOTA — Customs employees at a Minnesota airport learned a traveler had introduced a unique souvenir in her luggage: Giraffe feces.

The passenger arrived at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport from Kenya on September 29, according to a information launch from US Customs and Border Protection.

“The passenger declared giraffe feces and said she had acquired the droppings in Kenya and planned to make a necklace,” the release said.

The traveler said she had beforehand utilised moose feces to make equivalent jewellery at her house in Iowa, according to customs officers.

The agency’s agriculture specialists “seized the box, and the excrement was destroyed by using steam sterilization” according to protocol, the release explained.

“There is a authentic threat with bringing fecal matter into the U.S.,” LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, director of discipline functions at the agency’s Chicago discipline business, explained in the release. “If this particular person had entered the U.S. and had not declared these products, there is significant likelihood a particular person could have contracted a illness from this jewellery and made serious health and fitness troubles.”

Bringing “ruminant animal feces” into the US calls for a veterinary services permit, the launch reported. The agency mentioned Kenya ordeals African Swine Fever, Classical Swine Fever, Newcastle ailment, Foot and Mouth disorder, and Swine Vesicular Sickness.

Giraffes inhabit 27 of the 47 counties in Kenya, according to the Giraffe Conservation Basis. The basis explained disorder has played a minimal-comprehended job in the decrease of giraffe populations throughout the country.