Oh, duck: Printing error sends fowl-stamp
seekers to foul-mouth sex line
Here's another chapter from "Embarrassing Tales of Transposition," highlighting the importance of eagle-eye proofreaders:
Callers to a federal number looking to order this year's stamp for hunting migratory waterfowl are instead connecting with a different kind of wildlife. Rather than buying the $15 Duck Stamp from the Fish and Wildlife Service, callers are invited to spend $1.99 a minute to "talk only to the girls that turn you on."
Seems the Fish and Wildlife, which administers the duck stamp program, printed about 3.5 million stamps attached to cards with the wrong number. Instead of the correct number -- 1-800-782-6724 -- the misprint directs callers to 1-800-872-6724. The first spells out 1-800-STAMP24. The second? 1-800-TRAMP24.
The agency said today it would cost too much to reprint them -- $300,000.
"That's a lot of money we can be using for wildlife conservation. With all of the needs for conservation, it doesn't make sense to divert money away from an important cause," said spokeswoman Rachel Levin.
The government uses nearly all the revenue from duck stamps to purchase waterfowl habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System. For 2006-2007, that amounted to almost $22 million.
This year is the 75th anniversary of the program.
[Doug -- here's the latest stamp]
