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Comment by pfdietz | Hacker News Reader

Not really seeing why this should be illegal.

The guy imported an endangered species that may be invasive, forging documentation along the way.

He violated State, Federal, and International laws in pursuit of his enterprise. I gotta hand it to him it’s an impressive scheme to (almost) pull off at 80, I hope when I am that age I’ll be half as motivated to do stuff as he is.

Import of wildlife and organic material is very well defined in US Code. Even transport across state lines is well defined. This isn’t some obscure case precedent - it’s clearly illegal.

The question posed was _why_ this should be illegal.

Because you can introduce pests and invasive species that wipe out entire ecosystems.

See, for example, emerald ash borers.

The sheep was cloned from DNA so it’s not as if he brought a sheep into the country. Unless you mean the sheep itself is a pest…

Yes, the sheep itself could easily be a pest, as has happened with Asian carp, zebra mussels, emerald ash borers, etc. It's not difficult to imagine a scenario where escaped giant sheep manage to outcompete local wildlife.

Same reason as anything, externalities.

Many reasons, including:

* Spreading diseases

* Introducing an invasive species to a vulnerable environment

* Encouraging expanded trade in endangered species (gets more people interested, which causes them to go extinct faster)

Not to mention the fraud he committed in order to import in the first place.

For the same reason you can’t import dirty, used farm equipment.

Exactly. There's a place for keeping exotic animals without proper training or oversight: it's called Florida.

Nevermind the article outlining a plethora of crimes involving trafficking endangered animals, fraud and more.

The title on the DOJ release is misleading. It's not the breeding that was the crime. Trafficking in endangered species and fraudulent veterinary documents I think were the actual crimes, which he committed in support of the breeding efforts.

I think “Schubarth and others forged veterinary inspection certificates” did him in.

I think the issue is buying parts of an endangered species. It’s problematic in the same way that buying a rino horn is illegal. He’s supporting a market that harms an endangered species.

The dude tried to create a new species which could potentially become invasive.

Look at what kudzu is doing to the South or invasive Asian carp are doing to midwest waterways to get a sense of why that is an absolutely batshit insane thing to do and why it should be massively illegal. Invasive species are like biological weapons of massive destruction. Their potential blast radius is damn near infinite.

Farming animals like this might create alternatives to poaching and take pressure off endangered species.

Give the press release linked in this post a read it provides some details

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