“Are you guys really here to get me into trouble.”

The L.A. Times has an interesting story of a the Fish and Wildlife Service busting a guy for trying to sell an elephant skull. 

Did it matter that this elephant was legally in the United States and died of natural causes? Of course not. The Fish and Wildlife Service isn’t concerned about right and wrong. They are concerned about enforcing the law. It doesn’t matter whether or not it actually protects species.

There are good reason for the Fish and Wildlife Service to zealously prosecute the law as written. But no one should ever assume that bureaucrats enforcing the laws actually leads to good outcomes.