Man charged after turtles found beneath clothing

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

DETROIT (AP) — A Canadian man has been charged after border agents at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel found more than 50 turtles strapped to his body and hidden between his legs.

The Detroit News reports ( http://bit.ly/1BbWGSj ) that Windsor, Ontario, resident Kai Xu was charged Wednesday with smuggling, illegal trading and exporting. A bond hearing was scheduled Thursday in federal court in Detroit.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent received a tip about a large box sent to a Detroit postal center. Court documents say it was addressed to Xu and mailed from Alabama. Agents were watching the postal center on Aug. 5 when Xu arrived.

FULL short story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140925/us-odd-turtle-smuggling-detroit-b02953c82a.html

[davidthegnome]

1. Damnit man...

keep your turtle in it's shell!

[daleo]

2. It's turtles all the way down.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. LOL!

[reddread]

3. no snappers or softshells

obviously

[scarletwoman]

4. The suspect was moving very slowly. nt

[dipsydoodle]

5. You see stacks of shit on subjectsto this in factual tv series Border Security - Australia.

Not sure if you get that in the USA : we do in the UK.

Hope Kai Xu gets locked up for a very time.

Another link to subject here http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/25/canada-man-smuggle-turtles-groin-us-border

[Voice for Peace]

7. I think soup

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_soup

Chinese[edit]
In countries such as Singapore with large Chinese populations, turtle soup is a Chinese delicacy. The meat, skin and innards of the turtle are used in the soup. Soft-shelled turtles (鱉 such as Pelodiscus sinensis are commonly consumed in this manner in Chinese cuisine,[1] while consumption of hard-shelled turtles (龜 is often avoided due to their mythical connotations. However, the hard shells of certain turtles are used in the preparation of so-called "turtle jelly", or Guilinggao.[2][3]

[Voice for Peace]

8. The Rise and Fall of Turtle Soup

http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/the-rise-and-fall-of-turtle-soup

If you spend any amount of time paging through old menus, looking back to the Diamond Jim Brady era of American overeating, you’ll find a mention of turtle soup. Heck, you’ll probably find several mentions. This noble stew (and its mock counterpart) was served at presidential inaugurations, on the first transcontinental trains and in crowded boardinghouses across the growing country. It was President Taft’s favorite food, and given that the White House had to custom-build a bathtub to accommodate his girth, you’ve got to respect the man’s opinion.

But when did Americans begin eating this unlikely delicacy, and why did they stop? Green snapping turtles were abundant in the first colonies, and early settlers ate their fill of the meat. Turtle eggs appeared on Plymouth Colony dinner tables. Turtle soup in some form probably made the menu at the first Thanksgiving, albeit without the sherry and tomatoes the soup would later feature. By the Revolutionary War, turtle soup figured prominently on menus and in cookbooks across the country.

A large snapping turtle is said to contain seven distinct types of meat, each reminiscent of pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, veal, fish or goat. (Those less enamored of the protein might describe its flavor as muddy, dirty, mushy and chewy, however.) Recipes from the 1800s provide detailed instructions for cleaning turtles (general consensus seemed to be to cut off the head first, then go for the innards and flippers) and also give cooks the freedom to get their turtle meat from cans. Recipes for the first mock turtle soups appeared around the same time; indeed, the soup was so popular that diners preferred a fake version to no turtle soup at all. Some recipes for mock turtle soup instruct cooks to boil a whole veal head and make the stew from the resulting mass of meat, while others ask for a mix of tripe, tendon and sweetbreads that wouldn’t be out of place in a bowl of Vietnamese pho.

In the end, turtle soup became the victim of its own overwhelming popularity. It migrated from presidential dinners down to railway dining cars, and finally to the red and white Campbell’s can in the 1920s. By World War II, harried cooks had long tired of dressing their own turtles, and cheaper and tastier canned options to turtle became available. Newfangled convenience products like TV dinners and Spam were the final strikes against the increasingly unfashionable turtle soup, and by the 1960s it had gone the way of pepper pot, served only in certain regions of America.

[Dont call me Shirley]

9. I have desert tortoises; I couldn't image having them in soup. The bring us such fun.

[longship]

10. "I have monkeys in my pants."

Reminds me of an old Skeptics Guide to the Universe episode. The passed on skeptic rogue, Perry deAnglelis gave the absolute best argument for not smuggling animals in your underwear.

Recently, a fella by the name of Robert Cusack, no relation to the actor, was stopped at Los Angeles airport. He was going through customs; he had just flown in from Thailand, when suddenly, a couple of birds-of-paradise escaped from his luggage and flew out over the heads of the customs agents. He was an animal smuggler; he was trying to smuggle them into the country, and, you know, of course the agents immediately grabbed him and they said "OK, buddy, do you have anything else to declare at this time?", and he said, and I quote: "I have monkeys in my pants."

Sadly, Perry died in the August, 2007. However, the bird versus monkey battle goes on.

Later, when criticized that the Loris "monkeys" found in Cusack's pants were not technically monkeys, Steve Novella (the host of the podcast) admitted that Perry was just trying to find a way to get the sentence, "I have monkeys in my pants." into the podcast. Indeed, he did.

Like many moments in the totally unscripted Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast, Perry's story was well worth the fact that he was mistaken that Loris are not really monkeys.

You can download the episode here:
SGU 62

[christx30]

11. Turtles in his pants?

Sounds like he was having one shell of a good time!

[AndyTiedye]

12. I Hope They were Snapping Turtles

[pansypoo53219]

13. i am all for death penalty for animal poachers.

[Sunlei]

14. the fines & investigations aren't broad enough to stop poachers.

Somewhere in Alabama the poaching continues.

[whistler162]

15. Okay the question "Is that a turtle or are

you just happy to see me?". Just doesn't have the same ring.

[shenmue]

17. Ahem

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11039061

[Treant]

16. Fifty turtlenecks

was, in retrospect, rather suspicious to be wearing out and about.

[shenmue]

18. Ba dum bump, tish!