C.B.P. News Release

Baltimore CBP Heads Off Another Bird Soap Threat

(Thursday, July 16, 2009)

Baltimore – Turns out that two heads aren’t better than one. Especially so when they pose a potential threat to American poultry.

Less than four months after Customs and Border Protection seized a soap-encrusted bird’s head from a Nigerian traveler at Baltimore’s Thurgood Marshall International Airport, another traveler tested CBP and met with similar results on Tuesday.

The traveler declared possessing no agriculture products during his primary inspection at Baltimore-Washington International Airport at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday. During a secondary inspection, CBP agriculture specialists allowed the traveler several opportunities to amend his declaration, but the traveler refused. CBP then discovered a bird’s head concealed within a container of homemade black soap.

The traveler, a U.S. citizen of Nigerian descent, was issued a $300 fine and the soapy bird was destroyed. He returned to Baltimore from Nigeria through London.

“CBP respects others’ cultural traditions, and we are aware that in some cultures animals hold some ritual significance, however importing fowl products from regions that have suffered bird disease outbreaks without permit poses a significant threat to the American poultry industry,â€