General Warning to Hobbyists & Others Who Sell Wild Animal Product Cross-Border

[artificer]

Mods- if you feel this would be more helpful in another part of the forum, please feel free to move it. It effects more than a few DIYers, as well as registered businesses.

After a very stressful week dealing with US Fish & Wildlife I have a few "Heads Up" pieces of advice for our forum hobbyists and registered businesses who deal across the US border.

ANY part of ANY non-domesticated (farm) animal falls under the jurisdiction of US Fish & Wildlife.

ANY Part.

Bone or horn handles on knives or as buttons or pins.

Any fur, leather, claw or feather from animals other than farm/domestic animals (being cow, horse, sheep, goat, or pig) falls under their jurisdiction.

They regulate and have sole control (above and beyond US CUSTOMS) to inspect these products.

I know this because I've spent the last week clearing up the paperwork and filing for the appropriate license when a random customs check opened a fur sporran and sent it to USF&W.

They were very polite and helpful, but the process still ended up taking a week. As I said, they were quite helpful, and I didn't incur any fines (probably because it was clearly labeled on the Customs form- so it's pretty obvious I wasn't trying to smuggle it) nor did they impound/confiscate the piece.
In fact, it was probably one of the smoothest interactions I've had with the Federal Government where paperwork is concerned.

There is an annual Import/Export License that needs to be obtained ($100), and your product must be shipped to one of their ports of clearance for inspection (which also costs $93US as of Jan01 2012).

This applies to incoming materials as well. The only exception is for personal use. Obviously I don't need to get into the legal ramifications of declaring an item a "Gift" in order to dodge Customs, Tariffs, or Inspections.

I'm not a lawyer, so please don't take any of this as "Legal" advice, but as an experience to learn from so you don't make the same mistake. If you charge for your product and ship it across the US border, whether or not you are a licensed business or "just a guy", this applies to you.

Hopefully you can use this warning to help determine if or how you choose to sell across borders.

Cheers
ith: