A Smuggled Monkey and Neglected Seafood Moment

      I just read a story about seafood from China that the FDA was supposed to hold at U.S. ports and apparently did not do so, and another one about a monkey that was smuggled into the U.S aboard not one, but two planes under a guys hat. :-(

 

NEW YORK - A man smuggled a monkey onto an airplane Tuesday, stashing the furry fist-size primate under his hat until passengers spotted it perched on his ponytail, an airline official said.

The monkey escapade began in Lima, Peru, late Monday, when the man boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Alison Russell. After landing Tuesday morning, the man waited several hours before catching a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport.

During the flight, people around the man noticed that the marmoset, which normally lives in forests and eats fruit and insects, had emerged from underneath his hat, Russell said. "Other passengers asked the man if he knew he had a monkey on him," she said...."  

So why did the monkey under hat story catch my eye? This summer I had to enter the Federal building in Newark and was requested to lift my open-weave straw hat from my head even though I was being escorted into the building by a U.S. federal agent.  I was not happy with this directive because it was a bad hair day for me, but of course, raised my hat as told. I was then allowed to enter the building. I wonder why they would not require the same at airports?  

Story from Associated Press: Seafood from China wasn't screened http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070808/ap_on_he_me/seafood_safety_failures

 

Man smuggles monkey into NYC airport

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070808/ap_on_fe_st/odd_monkey_on_a_plane