The owner of a Melrose Avenue curio store that specializes in taxidermy, animal skulls and dried or preserved bats was sentenced to one year of probation today for violating the Endangered Species Act by knowingly importing protected seahorses and bat skulls without the proper permits.
Nancy Delap Smith, 56, of Studio City, was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.
Her store, Necromance, located at 7220 Melrose Ave., just west of La Brea and south of West Hollywood, was ordered to pay $20,000 in fines and placed on probation for two years.
Smith and a store representative entered guilty pleas in July to unlawful trade in protected species before U.S. Magistrate Judge John E. McDermott.
“The laws are designed to protect plant and wildlife that is threatened,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Mitchell said after a previous hearing. “In this case, documentation is needed to bring these items into the country.”
The case stemmed from packages sent from Indonesia and intercepted, before reaching the store, in March and May 2011 by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection international mail facility.
Mailing labels identified the contents as containing keychains and freeze-dried bats “for educational study,” according to the declaration of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent who investigated the case.
Upon examination, the first package contained dozens of dried seahorses — attached to key chains — mantises, scorpions, tree frogs, sleeping fruit bats and hanging fruit bats, the agent wrote.
The package also included a document “which incorrectly or falsely” stated that the shipment contained no species on the CITES — Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — checklist, according to the agent.
The international agreement aims to ensure that trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
The agent wrote that the second package, intercepted two months later, contained additional seahorse key chains and numerous bat skulls found to be protected under CITES. An invoice described the seahorse key chains as a non-CITES item, according to the agent’s declaration.
Prosecutors said Smith was aware that the contents of the Indonesia shipments could contain protected wildlife products.
I know Nancy. She is an amazing artist and jewelry designer. I shopped at Necromance. Each visit was an educational experience. Nancy is intelligent and straight forward. She made custom jewelry to our preference. She answered any and all questions honestly. For example, human bones, each had a serial number stamped. All legal. I inquired, if she had any ribs without the number. A bit of scrubbing, I removed the numbers. She provided a wide variety to those with a taste outside the realm of “Plastic L.A. Life” Okay. Seahorses are listed as “protected species” according to WWF.PANDA.ORG. FACT: WorldWildlife agency. WWF is… Read more »
What a disgusting store, with nothing good to contribute to our world. Peddling dead wildlife like it’s not worth anything alive. Bats are 90% down due to a virus and need protection more than ever. They are certainly more useful in the wild where they eat tons of mosquitoes than as a fetish in some creep’s home. Get some plastic skulls and leave the animals alone. And who the heck needs a seahorse on a keychain?!
This is one of the weirdest stores I’ve ever been in, but – hey – to each their own. That said, if you can’t run your business while obeying the law, maybe you shouldn’t be in business. Trafficking in endangered animals is unconscionable.
this is the creepiest store in L.A. I am glad they have been fined….not because I don’t like their store, but because they are contributing to the harming of animals.
I hope the owner has to pick-up cat and dog poo poo in Runyon Canyon. She and the store representative could each be placed in a very large bag at the end of their 200 hours and sent for “recycling.” Now I know why one company calls itself “Waste Management.”
The name of the store is as pathetic & sick as the merchandise it sells.