Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Customs agents at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport made a disgusting discovery on Friday (September 29). A woman traveling to the United States from Kenya declared on her customs form that she had a box filled with giraffe poop, telling officials she planned to use it to make a necklace.
Officials searched her belongings and found a box containing a shell and more than a dozen pieces of giraffe poop. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the feces could be contaminated with various diseases, including African Swine Fever, Classical Swine Fever, Newcastle disease, Foot and Mouth disease, and Swine Vesicular Disease.
The poop was confiscated and destroyed following United States Department of Agriculture protocols.
"There is a real danger with bringing fecal matter into the U.S.," LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, the Director of Field Operations for the Chicago Field Office of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in a statement. "If this person had entered the U.S. and had not declared these items, there is a high possibility a person could have contracted a disease from this jewelry and developed serious health issues."