Step Away From The Koi
One wonders just what in heck the State of Maine is thinking. Or if they are thinking at all. Armed game wardens and police conducted a raid on a restaurant in Freeport, Maine owned by a man who escaped from Vietnam 25 years ago. The massive display of police authority was used to seize the subject of the search warrant the wardens had obtained.
10 pet koi that had been living in a fish tank at the restaurant for 15 years.
FREEPORT, Maine - Armed game wardens seized 10 exotic fish from the tank of a popular Chinese restaurant, leaving its owner shaken and outraged.
"They treated me like a criminal," said Cuong Ly, who escaped from Vietnam 25 years ago. "I lived under communism and I felt like I'm back there again."
Ly, 45, said his pet koi were like family members and their confiscation in what he described as a heavy-handed raid made him "want to explode inside."
After obtaining a search warrant, two uniformed wardens and a biologist, accompanied by Freeport police, visited China Rose on Wednesday, taking away the 10 fish that ranged in size from 12 to 14 inches (30.5 to 35.5 centimeters).
The koi had been on display since Ly opened the restaurant nearly 15 years ago and he credited them for bringing good luck to the business in a way akin to the arrangement of articles in the ancient Chinese practice of feng shui.
A few years ago, however, Maine outlawed the importation and possession of koi, and Ly was charged with importing freshwater fish without a permit.
"These fish can grow to be very large," said Sgt. Tim Spahr of the Maine Warden Service. "And when they grow out of their indoor habitat, they may be taken to a lake or a river or stream, and what you have is an invasive species that can compete with the native fisheries."
Spahr said wardens had acted in response to a tip but he could not comment on the specifics of Ly's case while it was pending. The warden said he personally had been involved in three koi seizure cases within the past year.
Apparently there's a hot koi ring operating in Maine. The authorities turned the koi over to a pet store which promptly sold them back to Cuong Ly. Which goes to show exactly how dunder-headed this law is in the first place.
The koi were transported to the Little Shop of Pets in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which agreed to let Ly buy them back.
Ly, which planned to place his koi with a relative in Boston while awaiting the final outcome, said he could not bear losing the fish.
"It's like someone taking your dog or your cat away," he said. "These are like my children. I clean the tank every other week, keep them nice and healthy, clean and happy. As long as the fish are happy, I'm happy, and I do good business."
This is the kind of stupid, heavy-handed police activity that makes a state, and some of the laws they pass, look really, really dumb.
Animals, Dumb Stuff, Legal | Gaius Tuesday, 25 July , 2006
By Blackhawk, Tuesday, 25 July , 2006 @ 12:16 pm
Something’s fishy here. I blame the koi and their long standing ’status’ as a ‘feng shui’ symbol. Obviously, it’s the fish’s fault for being so endearing. If they weren’t so powerful, then the good people of Maine would never have needed to take such drastic measures of self-defense.
As for the ‘catch and release’ policy, looks like another round of debate on immigration reform is due…
Or is this an indicator of just how long the animals have been planning their uprising….hmm….endear yourselves to a particular group over time…recruit them as a 5th column…get their governments to over react…how cunning…let’s hope the penguins don’t figure this one out!
Hey, this isn’t the guy who bought the snake online from Germany, is it?
(Just a minor point, but if he had the fish for 15 years, and Maine only passed the law a couple of years ago, isn’t this an ‘ex post facto’ issue? Even the Brady bill had to grandfather magazines, I thought because of this issue.)
By Gaius, Tuesday, 25 July , 2006 @ 12:24 pm
I thought the same thing. The fish should have been “grandfathered”. But if you think cops can be heavy-handed at times, game wardens make them look like cub scouts.
By Breederville, Saturday, 30 September , 2006 @ 8:31 am
Track back:
http://breederville.com/auction/forumtopic.php?topic=19&boardid=5