As a first-time visitor, it’s clear to me that you have much to be proud of in your “unique environment, agriculture and communities.”

These last words belong to your Department of Agriculture, quoted from the Plants and Animals Declaration Form issued to arriving passengers.

We must declare if we are carrying (among other things) bacteria, viruses, protozoa, lizards and snakes. Critical to know, for sure. But these forms are collected by the flight attendant and handed over at the aircraft door. There is no attempt at linking a formal declaration with an actual passenger. There was no (obvious) plant quarantine inspector in the baggage area.

Smuggling a snake can lead to five years imprisonment, so I ask: What is the point of printing these forms if there is no supporting system to catch criminals in the act? Smugglers don’t self-declare.

Ken Pandolfi

Buckinghamshire, U.K.

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