For much of her life in Laos, Pa Lor knew only war and hardship. Her first husband was killed; her second captured. To find her way, Lor learned the ways of her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother in using wildlife to heal the sick. She became a shaman.
So the fact that she continued to use elephant parts, monkey hands and other illegally imported animal products as medicine in the United States should be regarded as an offense "more of culture than of greed," said her attorney, Andrea George.
George told a federal judge Tuesday, it made sense that Lor -- who is "approximately" 86 years old -- be spared jail time for illegally smuggling wildlife to sell at a market in St. Paul.
The argument made sense to the U.S. Attorney's office, which agreed to a deal recommending probation with some conditions.
It didn't make sense to U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, however.
Ericksen sentenced the Oakdale woman to two months in a halfway house, three months under home confinement and two years' probation. She also prohibited Lor from selling anything during at least the first year of her probation.
The probation deal was unacceptable, Ericksen said, "given the magnitude of the crime."
"To the extent that you were dealing these animal parts for drug purposes, you were a drug dealer," she said. Lor's medicinal argument is much the same as someone selling heroin "because nothing else will work for the pain," she added.
Ericksen later sentenced Lor's daughter, Tia Yang of Lake Elmo, to five months of home confinement, two years' probation and a $9,000 fine for helping her mother bring illegal animal products -- many of which come from protected species -- into the country. Yang will be able to leave her home to go to work.
Lor and Yang's convictions are part of an intensifying effort by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to thwart the lucrative trade in endangered species within Minnesota's sizable immigrant communities.
In undercover visits to several Twin Cities Asian markets over the past three years, federal agents have bought herbal tea containing gecko, packages of antelope horn, seahorses and products made with tiger bone and snake gall.
Lor was stopped at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in October 2005 when she returned from a trip to Laos. Authorities found more than 1,300 pieces of illegally smuggled wildlife in her luggage, including primate and elephant parts.
Ericksen noted that Lor kept selling illegal products at her stall at the International Market Place in St. Paul for nearly a year after customs agents seized the items. Some were priced at hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Ericksen also ordered Lor and Yang to perform community service. In Lor's case, that includes helping make a video to educate older members of the Hmong community about the laws against using animal products.
"There needs to be some punishment," Ericksen said. "Some deterrent."
George acknowledged the difficulty of balancing "protecting exotic animals and protecting this very long tradition and history of the Hmong culture." But, George said, going to a halfway house will be "an extremely difficult sentence" for an elderly woman who speaks no English.
Yang's lawyer, Michael Froelich, said he thought the sentence was fair.
Sheila O'Connor, a special agent for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service who has worked on Lor's case and others, was asked if she thinks this sentence will dampen the local illegal trade in animal products.
"I really hope so," she said. "If we take advantage of the educational opportunities the judge gave us today, we really can protect these animals better than we are right now."
As long as a market continues to use these protected animals, she said, poachers will continue killing and exporting them.
"Our goal is literally to save the world," O'Connor said. "We can have a profound impact on the survivability of these animals."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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