54700 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 179 / Friday, September 16, 2005 / Proposed Rules 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

50 CFR Chapter I 

RIN 1018–AJ24 

Humane and Healthful Transport of 

Wild Mammals and Birds to the United 

States 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed 

rulemaking and request for comments. 

SUMMARY: We are proposing to update 

and amend the standards for the 

humane and healthful transport of wild 

mammals and birds to the United States. 

To determine how to proceed, we are 

asking the public for comments and 

input on whether the current 

regulations are up to date and adequate. 

We are also seeking comments for the 

best process to address necessary 

changes to the requirements in the Code 

of Federal Regulations that provide 

standards for the humane and healthful 

transport of wild mammals and birds to 

the United States. This will allow us to 

further meet our responsibilities under 

the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 and 

our obligations under the Convention on 

International Trade in Endangered 

Species of Wild Fauna and Flora 

(CITES). The current standards for 

transport of mammals and birds now 

available are in accordance with the 

accepted international requirements as 

described in the International Air 

Transport Association’s (IATA) Live 

Animal Regulations (LAR) published in 

October 1993 (20th edition). This 

edition is now 12 years old and several 

updates of the IATA Live Animal 

Regulations have been published since 

publication of that edition. Many 

mammals and birds are protected by 

CITES and it is a recommendation that 

all species listed under CITES be 

transported using the current IATA 

LAR. We expect that if we promulgate 

amendments to the standards for 

humane and healthful transport of wild 

mammals and birds to the United States, 

these amendments will be consistent 

with the most current IATA LAR at the 

time of the final rule, and, therefore, be 

current with the industry standards for 

ensuring the humane and healthful 

shipment of live mammals and birds. 

Finally, it has come to our attention that 

IATA LAR requirements may not always 

agree with those of the international 

ground transport industry, such as those 

of the Animal Transport Association 

(AATA). We are interested in public 

comments on this issue as well. 

DATES: We will consider comments and 

information received by December 15, 

2005 in developing a proposed rule. 

ADDRESSES: U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service, Division of Management 

Authority, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, 

Room 700, Arlington, Virginia 22203. If 

you wish to comment, you may submit 

your comments by any one of several 

methods. You may mail comments to 

the above address or fax comments to 

703–358–2298. You may also send 

comments via electronic mail to 

HUMANETRANSPORT@FWS.GOV. If 

you submit comments via e-mail, please 

be aware that we have been subject to 

periodic internet and e-mail shutdowns. 

If you chose to e-mail your comments, 

please check our Web site at 

www.fws.gov first. If the website is not 

functional, any e-mail you send may not 

reach us and you will need to fax or 

mail your comments to us. Finally, you 

may hand-deliver comments to the 

above address. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Andrea Gaski, Chief, Branch of 

Operations, Division of Management 

Authority, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service; telephone (703) 358–2095, fax 

(703) 358–2298. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Please 

submit Internet comments as an ASCII 

file, avoiding the use of special 

characters and any form of encryption. 

Please include ‘‘Attn: [RIN number, 

1018–AJ24]’’ and your name and U.S. 

post office return mailing address in 

your Internet message and 

correspondence and categorize yourself 

as follows: 

1. International organization; 

2. Government; 

3. Non-government conservation 

organization; 

4. Humane or animal welfare 

organization; 

5. Wildlife/pet business; 

6. Other business; 

7. Private citizen. 

Our practice is to make comments, 

including names and home addresses of 

respondents, available for public review 

during regular business hours. 

Individual respondents may request that 

we withhold their home address from 

the rulemaking record, which we will 

honor to the extent allowable by law. 

There also may be limited 

circumstances in which we would 

withhold from the rulemaking record a 

respondent’s identity, as allowable by 

law. If you wish us to withhold your 

name and/or address, you must state 

this clearly at the beginning of your 

comments, but we will not consider 

anonymous comments. We generally 

make all submissions from 

organizations or businesses, or from 

individuals identifying themselves as 

representatives or officials of 

organizations or businesses, available 

for public inspection in their entirety. 

We believe that there are several 

reasons why the current regulations that 

set standards for the humane and 

healthful transportation for wild 

mammals and birds to the United States 

should be amended. 

First, the current regulations provide 

specific guidelines to the shipping 

community on proper packing and 

transport techniques and requirements. 

These regulations allow us to determine 

when shippers are not transporting 

animals under humane or healthful 

conditions. While the current 

regulations provide some detail on 

shipping certain types of mammals, as 

well as general shipping guidelines, 

greater detail is required to address the 

specific needs of individual species. 

Amending and improving our current 

standards, which are based on the 1993 

IATA LAR, will specify greater detail on 

proper packing and transport techniques 

and requirements, and will help us to 

continue to ensure that these animals 

are transported in a humane and 

healthful manner. Furthermore, the 

current regulations describe only 

general requirements regarding the 

shipment of birds, while the 31st 

edition of the IATA LAR is more 

specific for particular bird and mammal 

species. 

Second, the regulations need to be 

updated to make them consistent with 

the most recent edition of the IATA 

LAR. Many mammals and birds are 

protected under CITES. It is a 

requirement of CITES that all listed 

species must be packed and transported 

according to the IATA LAR guidelines. 

This includes all imports for all CITESlisted species. Humane transport of 

CITES-listed species is required by the 

text of CITES and explained in greater 

detail in Resolution Conf 10.21 

(Transport of Live Animals), which was 

adopted by the CITES Parties at the 

Tenth Conference of the Parties (COP), 

in Harare, Zimbabwe, June, 1997. But 

although IATA LAR are cited and 

referred to in the current regulations, 

their reference is to the 20th edition of 

the IATA LAR. In the past 12 years new 

methods and materials have been 

developed to improve transportation of 

animals, and to reduce shipping 

mortality and simplify processes. The 

IATA LAR is updated every year, and 

CITES recommends that shippers and 

carriers follow the requirements in the 

current edition of the IATA LAR. We 

will likely base any proposed amended 

Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 179 / Friday, September 16, 2005 / Proposed Rules 54701 

regulations on the 32nd or 33rd edition 

of the IATA LAR. 

Third, IATA lists and names species 

differently from the way CITES lists and 

names species in the Appendices to the 

Convention. This may cause confusion 

and misunderstanding; IATA uses a 

combination of common English and 

scientific names, but CITES sometimes 

uses only the scientific name. If we 

amend current regulations, we will use 

both the common and scientific name of 

species whenever possible, although we 

intend to use just the common name 

when referring to groups of animals, 

such as ‘‘bears’’ or ‘‘parrots.’’ This 

practice will make amended regulations 

similar to the 31st edition of the IATA 

LAR. In addition, many shippers 

transport CITES-listed and non-CITESlisted species on the same flights, and 

the IATA LAR refers to both CITESlisted and non-CITES-listed species. 

Therefore, it is important to provide 

common names to assist those 

individuals who may not be familiar 

with scientific names, even though we 

recognize that common names can refer 

to different species of animals. 

Fourth, although the IATA LAR 

provide guidelines for air transport and 

can be used as guidelines for non-air 

transport (i.e. transport by road, rail, or 

sea), there are recommendations 

available from other sources (e.g. 

AATA) that specifically address the 

transport of species by road, rail or sea. 

Additionally, the CITES Parties are 

considering the addition of 

requirements specific for ground 

transportation of wildlife and we plan to 

propose amendments to our regulations 

based on those recommendations to 

standardize international ground 

shipping practices. Therefore, we are 

soliciting recommendations from the 

public and other interested parties 

regarding ground transportation 

recommendations for various types of 

animal groups. 

As a result, we plan to change the 

regulations in 50 CFR Part 14, subpart 

J, in several ways. 

First, we plan to propose to include 

more specific requirements such as 

number of animals per container, for the 

general transport of mammals and birds. 

In shipments where these numbers have 

been exceeded, our wildlife inspectors 

would have an objective and consistent 

method to determine whether the 

shipment was humane and healthful. 

The current regulations do not provide 

any detail in this regard. Also, while the 

current regulations specify that terminal 

facilities must have an effective program 

for the control of insects, ectoparasites 

and pests of mammals and birds, we 

propose to include specific methods to 

be used by terminal facilities to control 

insect pests. 

Second, we plan to propose changes 

to 50 CFR Part 14, subpart J, by adding 

new sections and expanding existing 

regulations that enact requirements 

concerned with the transport of 

particular taxa of mammals and birds. 

Since these regulations were last 

published in 1992, several changes have 

been made in the IATA LAR specifying 

different shipping arrangements for 

various species of mammals and birds. 

We plan to propose changes based upon 

the 32nd or 33rd edition of the IATA 

LAR for the transport of mammals and 

birds. In the IATA LAR 20th edition, for 

example, several small carnivores 

(genets, olingos, grison, and falanouc) 

are included in the crate requirements 

for large gnawing rodents and 

marsupials. In the IATA LAR 31st 

edition, these same species have been 

included in the container requirements 

for animals more similar in behavior 

and form. 

Third, we plan to propose changing 

the language and format of the old 

regulations to clear and plain language 

with an easier to follow outline format. 

Finally, in order to be current with 

CITES transportation recommendations, 

we propose to add regulations 

specifically pertaining to international 

ground transportation of wildlife to the 

United States. The CITES Transport 

Working Group (TWG) is developing 

such guidelines and we will likely 

propose international ground 

transportation regulations that largely 

mirror those adopted by the CITES 

Parties. We also seek input on the 

spectrum of potential ground transport 

issues, particularly species or taxaspecific ones, and will consider that 

input during our revisions. 

Other changes to the regulations will 

be based on comments and suggestions 

that we receive from the public. 

Author 

The author of this advance notice of 

proposed rulemaking is the staff of the 

Division of Management Authority (see 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

section). 

Authority: The authority for this advance 

notice of proposed rulemaking is the 

Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended 

(16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). 

Dated: August 19, 2005. 

Marshall Jones, 

Acting Director. 

[FR Doc. 05–18416 Filed 9–13–05; 12:22 pm] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Fish and Wildlife Service 

50 CFR Part 17 

RIN 1018–AI80 

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife 

and Plants; Proposed Establishment of 

a Nonessential Experimental 

Population of Northern Aplomado 

Falcons in Southern New Mexico and 

Arizona 

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Proposed rule; reopening of 

public comment period, notice of public 

hearings, and notice of availability of 

draft monitoring plan. 

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service (Service), announce the 

reopening of the public comment period 

for the proposed rule to establish, under 

section 10(j) of the Endangered Species 

Act of 1973, as amended (Act), an 

experimental population of northern 

aplomado falcons (Falco femoralis 

septentrionalis) into their historic 

habitat in southern New Mexico and 

Arizona. We are providing this notice to 

allow all interested parties to comment 

on the proposed reintroduction and the 

draft environmental assessment (notice 

of which published in the Federal 

Register on February 9, 2005). We are 

also announcing the availability of a 

draft monitoring plan for the 

reintroduction of the northern aplomado 

falcon for public comment. We will 

hold two public hearings (see DATES and 

ADDRESSES sections). 

Through this notice and the public 

hearings, we are seeking comments or 

suggestions from the public, other 

concerned governmental agencies, 

Tribes, the scientific community, 

industry, or any other interested parties 

concerning the proposed experimental 

population and draft monitoring plan. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted 

directly to the Service (see ADDRESSES

section) on or before November 15, 

2005, or at any of the public hearings to 

be held in October 2005. Any comments 

received after the closing date may not 

be considered in the final determination 

on the proposal. 

We will hold two public hearings at 

the following dates and times: 

1. October 11, 2005: Las Cruces, NM. 

Informal question and answer session: 6 

p.m. Public hearing: 7 p.m.–8:45 p.m. 

2. October 13, 2005: Albuquerque, 

NM. Informal question and answer 

session: 6 p.m. Public hearing: 7 p.m.–

8:45 p.m. 

ADDRESSES: