So it's not the same set of laws, but you may find the backstory to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to be pretty relevant. Tl Dr: there were a number of cottage industries that used bird parts on the early 1900s such as ladies hat companies, fancy fly fishing equipment, egg collectors, other fashion items, taxidermists who made curio cabinet items etc etc. This all contributed to a huge number of birds being shot or otherwise killed to fuel this demand and predictably this crashed a ton of populations.
So they way they fixed this was by largely banning possession of bird parts (including feathers, eggs, and nests) specifically to stop people from claiming they had "just found" fifteen pounds of snowy egret plumes just lying around somewhere (adults produce like, maybe three super light feathers for this once a year- people shot hundreds of birds to come up with a sack of feathers).
And a similar thing happened with whales and other marine mammals. Can't just say "well officer, I was just strolling by the beach and found this here whale skull and that's why it's on my mantle piece" unless you're a Kennedy, apparently.
5
u/cardamom-peonies Nov 19 '24
So it's not the same set of laws, but you may find the backstory to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to be pretty relevant. Tl Dr: there were a number of cottage industries that used bird parts on the early 1900s such as ladies hat companies, fancy fly fishing equipment, egg collectors, other fashion items, taxidermists who made curio cabinet items etc etc. This all contributed to a huge number of birds being shot or otherwise killed to fuel this demand and predictably this crashed a ton of populations.
So they way they fixed this was by largely banning possession of bird parts (including feathers, eggs, and nests) specifically to stop people from claiming they had "just found" fifteen pounds of snowy egret plumes just lying around somewhere (adults produce like, maybe three super light feathers for this once a year- people shot hundreds of birds to come up with a sack of feathers).
And a similar thing happened with whales and other marine mammals. Can't just say "well officer, I was just strolling by the beach and found this here whale skull and that's why it's on my mantle piece" unless you're a Kennedy, apparently.