At Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC I hear that statement a lot when it comes to clients that are waiting for international hunting trophies to be shipped into the USA. There are a few reasons why your trophies are taking 6 to 16 months to be shipped into the country. 1) Your trophies went to a taxidermist that your PH uses for the reasons that they receive commission from them and being a taxidermist, they hold on to them for a while until they have to pay the commission and while they are there, they will hope that the client will just say “go ahead and mount them since they are already there”. Your safari represents a major revenue source for them but only if they do the taxidermy work instead of just pac and dip process. When they are not doing the work, there is little income so they are not in any hurry to process and ship your trophies . When you drop them of personally , they always say that they will be out within 60 days but after your home for 6 months, you contact them and when asked about the trophies, they blame it on the permits, CITIES,or TOPS have not yet been completed, but in fact, they have not yet applied for them. They are only going to apply for the permits when you wire them the money for the pack and dip. Major conflict of interest.!!!!!! 2)Your PH , on some operators, are not paying the trophy fees to the government on time so they are using your trophy fees to stay above water, wanting for the next clients trophy fees to pay for yours and so on. But when asked about the subject, they are quick to say that’s its the governments fault. 3) And then once here in the USA, it’s the new employees at the USFG that with the smallest errors with the paperwork from the country of origin, your trophy will be confiscated or sent back and then have to be re-imported. 4) Or when the taxidermist says he only uses a certain shipper and only ships to one port is again a crock . The reason for this extortion is that the taxidermist only uses this shipper is that the shipper is paying the taxidermist a commission and he is using that to say afloat. reputable shippers will ship to any port that the client wants their trophies to go to and most will work with the client and ship the crates C.O.D. to the broker clearing the trophies that the client hired-( then there are some that they only ship to a certain custom broker too, the extortion just goes on and on) And the list goes on but here are some solutions. Book only with reputable outfitters, check at least 2 years worth of references and if there are any red flags, address them before putting down your deposit. Use only independent export co that all they do is pack and dip and most of them will guarantee that the trophies will be shipped out within 90 days max. They do pickup from your PH so he doesn’t have to deliver them. It’s your money, for the taxidermist and the pack and dip firms are in the same ballpark for rates. Where the pac and dip firms want to export the trophies and get paid, not the taxidermy firm that just wants to mount them. Make sure when you receive the email stating the contains of the safari that EVERYTHING that you want shipped is on that list. If not respond right away and tell them about it and tell them to find your trophy cuz if it’s not on the list, it will not be shipped and it’s gone Have the exporter scan the paperwork over to the custom brokers before the crate is shipped so they can proof read it and if any clerical errors, they will be corrected and that means no problem with customs plus you will have copies if the main ones are lost on the trip to the brokers and to your USDA agent like Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC. Most of this must be discussed with the outfitter during the booking and before the money leaves your hand cuz once you board the plane back to the USA it becomes a lot harder to handle, but if they are reputable outfitters, there is a few things that can be done if push comes to shove, but that’s for another article. Any questions, feel free to contact Capp’s Taxidermy Studio LLC for we are a USDA approved establishment and we clear lots of international orders every year and we can answer most questions. Remember it’s your money, your choice, and life is way too short to worry about this.
