Primate Smuggling and Tarantula Trade, David Kirkby
David Kirkby, veteran U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Special Agent, talks about wildlife law enforcement. He tells “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme about two of his most prominent cases: smuggling of primates for research institutions; and Operation Arachnid, an undercover investigation into the illegal trade in tarantulas.
David Kirkby was a US FWS Special Agent for twenty years, from 1988 until he retired in 2008. Raised in North Canton, Ohio, Kirkby worked for years in the federal wildlife refuge system, starting in the west desert of Utah before moving to Montana’s Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge, and then the Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge in southern Illinois. From there, he moved into US FWS’s law enforcement division, first as a wildlife inspector at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. That helped prepare him for another shift, as a special agent. In 1988, after additional extensive training, he began as a FWS Special Agent, with his first duty station in Montgomery, Alabama. Eventually, Kirkby moved back to Chicago, where he pursued numerous complex multi-year undercover investigations, including ones on primate smuggling and on the pet tarantula trade. (First aired on August 22, 2011)
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Podcast Subjects:
Elephants Rhinos Orangutans and Palm Oil Other Primates Big Cats Bears Other Mammals Insects Birds Reptiles and Amphibians Marine Life Climate Change Poaching Poisons Wildlife Trade Wildlife Forensics Wildlife Research Working Dogs Wildlife and Health Wildlife Rehabilitation Economics and Wildlife Wildlife Law Enforcement Wildlife Filmmaking Journalism and Wildlife CITES Asia, Southeast Asia, and Middle East Latin America North American Wildlife Activism Veterinarian Stories Podcasts by Subject