Cherokee,
Please don't take what I say as an assult on you! You have to look at it from my point of view. The reality of this issue for American outfitters hunting private land spills over to the African side as well. The way I see it, a couple of Canadian hunters back in the sixties figured that if clients would pay trophy fees in Africa, why wouldn't they pay them in North America as well? Like I stated, the trophy fees my clients pay go, for the most part, to the actual purchase of the animal from the landowner. When I have clients that know of the controversy of North American trophy fees on public lands, they automatically assume I am trying to rip them off by charging more than the hunt is worth. Such is the experience that they may have had, or heard about. Call it something else-Trophy processing fee, prep fee, skinning and packing fee, whatever-but not a trophy fee. The term trophy fee comes from the time when english gentlemen hunted private reserves owned by the crown or others of nobility. The fee was paid to the ghillie, or game warden, as a purchase for the animals taken or wounded. The warden was an employee of the crown or the landowner, and reported to them, as well as having the responsibility of stopping poachers. The trophy fees generally went towards the ghillies salary and upkeep of the land so the owner would always have his hunting land preserved for his use. This was all private land hunting, not public. American outfitters on public land are not purchasing the animal from the state, only the license to hunt it, and the normally incurred fees of the outfitter. The outfitter should word his fee schedule accordingly, letting the client know exactly where his money goes. If you are hunting privately held leases where the owner expects payment for what you take off the property, your client should know that there are trophy fees involved due to this situation. I hope you can see my point on this. I've hunted Colorado several times, usually around Arapaho NF, and been successful on elk several times. My outfitter never once asked for a trophy fee or any other money except what he originally quoted me. Needless to say, he was tipped very generously for the effort and honesty each time. Had he tried to charge me a trophy fee for an animal he had no monetary claim to, He would not have been tipped, and I would not have gone back to him nine years in a row!