John Deer

I'll make this as short as possible.

I took a trip to Prince Wales Island, Alaska last may on a "do it yourself" black bear hunt with two friends of mine. We had an excellent time, enjoyed the scenery, the comradry, the food, and all took a bear. It was truly the hunt of a lifetime.

We all took our bear to the local taxi to let him flesh the hide. Both of my buddies had him flesh only and then ship the hide back to them sothey couldtake the hides to their local taxi. I decided to leave mine with him to be rugged out."I live in northeast Oklahoma and felt better about letting ataxi that's done 100's of bear's doing mine rather than my local guy that has only done a couple."

I paid $150 to have the hide fleshed as did my friends. I then also paid an extra $150 deposit on the rest of the work I intended to have done.He (taxi) told me it would be approx 8 months to finish the rug because hewas backed up andwas in the process of moving to a new building. By the look of things, he was backed upand, 8 months didn't sound too bad to get the job done properly.

Well, now it's coming up on 11 months and still no bear rug. I tried repeatedly to contact him to check on the progressand an estimated time he thought he'd be finished.I started calling inearly January when the 8 months would have been up and much to my regret, I got ahold of his helper. She instructed me that he (taxi)was in the lower 48andshe didn't know when he'd be back.Also, she said my bear had been sent out to have the backing (felt i guess)sewed on.I didn't ask anything further but instructed her to contact me when my bear was done. Weeks went by and no calls,....... I tried again and got the same response from the helper. This time she said thatmy bear, along with other bearswere "supposedly" being shipped back from whoever they outsourced the sewing job to. I asked if they were having problems with these people they outsourced too and she said that they were backed up and that's all she would say. Again, I asked for a phone call within a couple of weeks to let me know the status of my bear.

Now its March 21 and I still hadn't recieved a call. I call and finally get ahold of the Taxi's wife. She says her husband has been diagnosed with cancer and has been in Oregon getting treatments for the last couple of months, and is actually due homethat very day.I apologize for bothering her with this trivial question at a time like this and again ask about the status of my bear. She informs me that my bear was outsourced to some people in Montana to have the backing sewed on along with many other bear. She said that they sent the bears along with $10,000 to pay for the work.She then said that they were having trouble reaching these people and had repeatedly tried to get in touch with them to no avail. She then told me that they were working with the local authorities (in Montana) to try to resolve the issue. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My nightmare has come true.What am I supposed todo now. I will be trying to call again tomorrow but I don'twant to bother this guy ifhe's real sick with cancer, and according to his wife he is. What should I do? I want my bear. Just asidenote,when we were there at the taxi's hewas talkingabout Ted Nugent being on the island and taking a bear. Nugent took his bear to this guy and had him rug it out. The last day we were there we were eating in a smallresturaunt and low and behold there wasTed Nugent with his son and film crew. We introduced ourselves and had a 10 minute conversation about our experiences on the island hunting. I asked Nugent ifhe took his bear to this taxi and he said he did. I figured if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me too. So, what to do now?

nctaxi

Well, there really isn't a good solution. What I'd do is send a registered letter stating that you are going to proceed with legal action if you are not given some date to which the work will be finished.Unfortunately, what you are experiencing is a common occurance with some taxidermists. I feel for you but you have only 2 choices - wait patiently or start a p ssin match. I know that's not much good news but I hope it helps. You can also try contacting the state taxidermy association, local authorities, state fish and game, etc.

Alex The Hawk

Find out who he sent it to.

And then take it from there, some laws might have being broken sending bears from one sState to another.

cameronmclain

John Deer- Sorry to hear that man. That is a bummer. Hopefully it all gets resolved quickly. I know the guy is sick w/ cancer, but I kindof feel like he should've had his wife/helper call everyone and let them know what was going on. Everything sounds a little fishy to me. If it was all Montana's fault, they would've been quick to answer questions in Alaska. But they weren't, so it doesn't sound right to me. I would begin legal action IMMEDIATELY. I feel sorry for him and his family if he is sick, but he has a business to run, and his "helper" could be helping him by letting customers know what is going on.

Bill Yox

Perhaps they WILL let you know whats going on...once THEY themselves know, and have something to tell you. Its a tough situation, I know. But if you can be patient, hopefully things can get resolved. It wouldnt hurt to contact local authorities there where the bear is being done, just to be on record. I wouldnt start making an attorny rich just yet though. Think about it...what is HE going to do that you couldnt? One thing...always get names, dates and times when making phone calls, and keep records. Its possible that the rug wholesaler might be giving this taxidermist the screws, and your info will only help you in the long run. Good luck to you, and Im sorry to hear about this.

John Deer

I appreciate the responses. I have tried to call a couple of more times this week and just get the answering machine. I intend to continue to be patient with the situation, but am irratated at all of this. I'll just keep callin and hope for the best. I know this guy has a good reputation as a taxi and judging by the amount of bear he had when we were there, it seems like there would be many others in the same situation as me right now. Unfortunatly, I don't know any of them,or how to contact them to see if they've gotten any additional info about the situation. I'll just keep calling.

Bill Yox

I really thought we gave you good advice... but keep calling isnt going to do it. Hey, good luck to you though, I hope it works out nicely for you soon.

Tree climber

have you though about giving Ted an E-mail to see if he will respond. tell him about you talk with him up there and his bear.see if he has the same problem.

you never know,he may get right back to you and can help.what morehave you got to lose?

sorry you are haveing problems with this.when you do get it back,you will have memories to relive.Good Luck

John Deer

Bill,

I do appreciate the advice. I didn't mean I was going to badger these folks, I just wanted to talk to the taxi or his wife about the situation to see if they had any more info. I talked to her just a couple of days ago and she informed me that they had recieved word that the rugs had been sent. This is the second time she's told me this. I'm not going to call them back for a few weeks now. Hopefully they'll keep me informed. It really bugs me though that they haven't made any attempt to contact me, even when the 8 months that they quoted came and went. Everytime we've spoke, it's because I've called them. That's why I said I'd just keep calling. But I do agree that all the advice that was given was good advice.

Thanks again.

Bill Yox

I know its got to be frustrating for you. Ive inadvertently done the same to some of my customers over the years. I receive calls weekly, asking how soon, as folks get anxious, and I dont blame them. I usually dont return the call, though, until I have something definite to tell them, unless Im way over time on the job, then I do call back just to let them know Im still alive. Sometimes we as taxidermists are our own worst enemies.