Selling Alligator Heads Or Raptor Talons Online? Texas Game Wardens Are Watching

Internet forums and online marketplaces offer quite the menagerie: raptor talons, American alligator heads, live box turtles and a taxidermy great blue heron.But it was those very items that landed nearly two dozen people in trouble this week when Texas Game Wardens cracked down on the illegal wildlife trade in Dallas-Fort Worth, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced Wednesday.Game wardens negotiated undercover transactions with the sellers in 20 cases before handing out a total of 18 citations and 18 warnings. Among the citations: charges for the alleged sale and possession of threatened and or protected species, sale of migratory duck parts and commercial exotic snake permit violations, the department said. The citations are class C misdemeanor violations that are punishable by a fine from $25 to $500.   Continue reading...