Please take some time to read these terms and conditions carefully, as placement of an order will be understood as full acceptance of these terms and conditions.
TREATMENT.
We take on any animal or animal parts such as skins/hides/caps or full animals in “good faith” that they have been prepared, treated, correctly labelled, cared for, stored and subsequently transported in optimum conditions, which are not in any way detrimental to them.
We also accept all trophies on the understanding that all documentation is entirely in order.
Unfortunately we have no control over the preparation, treatment and storage of animals or parts threof, prior to us receiving them, consequently, we cannot in any way be held responsible for the subsequent failure of any skin or hide, in whole or in part, during the mounting process.
A skin or cape may prove to be unfit for the taxidermy process for a number of reasons such as, but not limited to, those outlined below:
Read More- Poor field preparation: Bad skinning and caping of trophies is a major problem today. Make sure that your trophies are skinned properly.
- Stale salt, incorrectly applied salt. This causes epidermal slippage in whole or in parts.
- Bad treatment, handling and storage: Trophies should be carefully handled, tagged and stored in a chiller or freezer immediately once harvested.
- Season: Animals harvested outside their rutting season or during their moult may be in poor coat and physical condition. These may need a replacement if available.
- Epidermal slippage (skin slip), fat burn, acid damage, chemical damage, pest and/or fungal damage, bad tanning practice, degradation due to the age of the skin, poor storage, rushed or bad skinning, excessive bullet impact, inadequate raw preparation., ill treatment or any combination of the above can easily wreck a skin for quality taxidermy.
I do my absolute utmost at all times to ensure that all skins/hides are viable as a finished mount after all a failed skin is a lost order, plus the time I spend working on it.
LEGAL NOTES
These matters are entirely and legally the responsibility of the Client as legal owner of the trophies being mounted.
- Always ensure all necessary licences/documentation are in place BEFORE you send, bring or commission us to handle or treat any skin or skins.
- All skins, hides, skulls and horns must have been legally harvested in every respect.
- All appropriate licences, permits, C.I.T.E.S paperwork, customs clearances, import/export docs, Cveds (vet inspection docs) etc. must be made available and will be thoroughly checked. Any trophies not fully licensed and cleared can be seized and forfeited or destroyed.
- A valid CITES and export docs (in the country of origin) may be irrelevant under UK and European laws. Always check the laws here before you hunt.
REPAIR AND REPLACEMENT COSTS.
Any skins which are badly damaged or ruined, due to any combination of the above described causes, can incur extra charges for any unexpected repair work or admin work to sort out issues.
In the event that any skin has issues, clients will always be informed, prior to any work being done and be offered the opportunity to view the skin and discuss the problem. In the event that a skin is unfit to be mounted I will advise the client of that failure and the reason for it. Also (if required) I will provide a short written report explaining the reason for that failure. I will also invite the client to view the skin and discuss any viable alternatives such as obtaining a replacement cape/skin at cost to the client.
TANNING
We tan many of our skins (including some African skins) ourselves however, where necessary, we may also engage the services of professional commercial tanneries for certain kinds of tans, treatments and specialist skin finishing, such as Zebra rugs, backskins and some large full mounts.
- Tanneries, like taxidermists, treat skins on the fair assumption that the skin is correctly preserved, prior to its arrival.
- Tanneries work on quantity and cannot get into assessing individual skins.
- Commercial Tanneries charge a flat rate to process a skin.
- All Tanning costs must be paid, irrespective of the result.
- Salted dried skins (as form Africa) cannot be accurately assessed prior to the tanning process.
- Skins must be packed and sent then returned, cost covered.
- Failure of a skin is relatively rare but this financial commitment must be explained and understood.
- Almost all failure of a skin can be traced directly to its initial preparation and or subsequent storage. Neither of which is the fault or responsibility of the tannery or taxidermist.
- Payment for a tanning service then does not mean that the tanned skin will be fit to mount. But it will be tanned, this is what you pay for.
If you require further clarity on any of the above, please feel free to email us.
Put very simply no taxidermist will take responsibility for pre treated skins which fail.