Well my mother makes porcelain dolls and one day she bought some doll parts from the US but the thing is they arrived all smashed up. She got a letter from customs with the pieces saying something like “customs has checked the package and found that the boxed used to send the items in was once used by a florist to send flowers”. So basically they took the box, stuffed the porcelain parts in another way smaller box, tried to stuff the box full of the packing stuff from the original box and that’s how it all got here. Thank God for customs then I say
I’m surprised actually how much stuff customs does open and check. I’d say at least 1 in 5 boxes of anything big I get off eBay is checked (they always come with a customs letter etc.).They are actually pretty “tight” as I think now all the postage is checked via x-ray. I’ve heard of heaps of cases where 1 spider was found trying to be smuggled into Australia in 1 of 20 – 30 video tapes in the same box, shoes being sent with snake eggs in the heel etc and various bird chicks in stuffed animals. So I think the regular mailing system is pretty much got that kinda stuff on lock-down. I think the big trouble however is in the huge shipping containers. Apparently it is only economical to check around 1 in ever 100 from what I last heard. So I would say that would be where 95% of illegal animals is coming in.
