U.S. Imports of Live Animals

Defenders' International Program has a strong presence in seeking policy reforms on harmful non-native species, which are major threats to native species and natural ecosystems. Our focus is on stopping the importation of potentially invasive animals. The United States has a long history of invasive animals being intentionally released or escaping into the wild and causing significant environmental, health and economic problems.

Broken Screens: The Regulation of Live Animal Imports in the United States

Defenders' major new report, released August 1, 2007, details the failures of the regulatory system for live, wild animal imports in the United States.

This report is an unprecedented examination of the low level of protection given by the lax U.S. system from the risks that non-native animal species pose to our environment and to public health.
View the full report and supporting information.


Examples of invasive non-native animals include

  • Nutria – a giant South American rodent that destroys coast salt marshes
  • Starling – a bird that damages crops and displaces native songbirds from nest sites
  • Indian Mongoose- a mammal driving native wildlife toward extinction in Hawaii
  • Giant Burmese Python – a snake which is attacking wildlife in the Everglades National Park

Damaging pathogens and parasites have also accompanied past animal introductions. With new global threats like avian influenza and SARS, the almost purely reactive U.S. regulatory system is indefensible.

The massive worldwide traffic in non-native animals recently was identified by an expert group under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as the most glaring gap in the international legal system related to trade and invasive species. The international legal effort to address this gap will be defined by 2009.

Defenders’ Goals

Defenders’ goals to transform the invasive animal and pest and pathogen policy framework are:

  1. We will build support to change current U.S. law on intentional imports of live animals to require proactive screening for potential invasiveness and other harms before they can be imported.
  2. We will promote development of strong international guidance and best practices on potentially invasive animals in order to fill the gap identified by the CBD, mentioned above.
  3. We will promote pre-import screening as a best practice.