MEAT MINDER: A researcher analyzes bushmeat samples in the American Museum of Natural History’s Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics. E. TRIMARCO/AMNH
In October 2008, US Customs and Border Protection agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, seized a suspicious postmarked container shipped from Nigeria. Moments later, at the airport’s Centers for Disease Control New York Quarantine Station, personnel in full protective gear gingerly opened the package and pulled out dark, misshapen objects—hunks of meat. They photographed and cut off a sample from each, placing them into a container of liquid nitrogen. The remaining meat was incinerated.
In the following 2 years, US Customs confiscated an additional seven postal shipments at JFK and seized 20 more packages straight out of the arms of passengers at four other US airports. Some of the meat was dried, some smoked, some still raw and dripping blood.
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