Quote Originally Posted by Bad Monkey View Post
according to the marine mammals act, it's not illegal to own seal skin products, it's just illegal to buy, trade, sell, or import sealskin items.
Thanks for the clarification.

I've told on these forums the story of what happened here in the 1990s.

A Highland Dress Outfitter from Scotland opened a US branch shop, and they showed up at one of our California Highland Games with a nice display booth and a whole trailer of merchandise.

Laid out on the display table were 20 or so sealskin sporrans. An American customer was looking at them, and asked the Scottish salesman "are these real sealskin?"

"Oh, aye" said the Scot.

"Do you have any more?"

"Oh, aye, there in the caravan."

Upon which the American produced his badge, and seized all the sporrans.

The ironic thing was when my wife and I were in Scotland in the 1980s we visited a sporranmaker who showed us a closet-full of badger pelts he said were illegal to use. Badgers are protected in Scotland but vermin in North America, while seals are the opposite.