Is Bird Law In This Country Governed By Reason? I'm Here To Tell You That It Is.

Mostly.

If anything around here isn't governed by reason, it's this hat that makes Beehive Hair look sane.

There is actually a substantial body of regulation governing the treatment, hunting, and live keeping of numerous bird species in North America. However, though the unbarred-attorney lobby may attempt to convince you otherwise, bird law is most certainly governed by a degree of reason.

Council makes some....points.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 is one of the earliest pieces of US Federal environmental legislation. Enacted to curb over-exploitation of various migratory bird species during a period where your average fashionable lady had pushed the feather poaching trade to murder her at least 17 birds a year, it has proven to be an effective deterrent against many forms of "fowl" (sic) exploitation ever since.

Believe it or not, there was once a time where for ecological reasons, these type of rules had to be strictly enforced. Women, natural defenders of the right to wear anything (no matter how grotesque) were laying economic waste to their men by paying to attach every conceivable dead fowl to their noggins.

Clearly these women are staunch supporters of PETA.

I'm not making this up or exaggerating. According to Popular Science, "birds on hats were so popular that they contributed to the decline of several species like the snowy egret and the common tern."

However, this law was not implemented without thought. It includes provisions for a number of exceptions, including "the use of Eagles or their 'affects'" by Native Americans for ritual purposes. Exceptions are also granted for: "taxidermy, falconry, propagation, scientific and educational use, and depredation."

This hat, however, clearly was implemented without thought...or sanity...or basic hygiene.

Despite a lack of slap-dash construction, this law is still one of those that regularly makes criminals out of unknowing Americans. Possessing so much as a feather or an eggshell from any of the protected species, or disturbing any nesting birds, is all punishable under the act. Keeping any protected bird as a pet, even temporarily as an act of environmental charity (in the case of injured animals,) is also punishable.

Remember - no good deed goes unpunished.

Neither does any "fowl" one - this picture is never going away.

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Sources: Wikipedia, Audobon.org, Popular Science
Copyright: IASIP, FabulousMissK.com, Audobon.org, Pacific Standard