Rehydrate or To the Trash?

[ae walsh]

I'll apologize in advance because I'm not sure this is even the right category to post in, but I'm sure with the tanning knowledge here SOMEONE will have an answer...

To make a long story short, I have a small safari that looks like it has bugs. Nothing live, but bug carcassas galore and from what I can see, it looks like they had a field day on the hair. There's a buffalo, waterbuck (both salted hard as a rock, so I can't unfold them to see the extent of damage) and a LS warthog (wrapped tight in plastic with no sign of bugs).

1. Is there any hope that they are salvageable?
2. Would it make any sense to rehydrate to get a better look at the hides unfolded to survey the damage? If yes, anything I should be particularly careful about doing or not doing?
3. If I can't rehydrate without loosing them, is my only option to send them to the tannery and hope I don't spend big money on what amounts to a total loss?
4. Is there any reason to believe the pig was saved by the plastic (given that I can't see any signs of bugs)?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

--Abe

[Keith Daniels]

Talk to your tannery and tell them the situation. When we have someone with something like this we are more than happy to take it in, knowing that it might be bad when soaked, if it is we just call them, sometimes even send digital pictures, and see how they want to proceed, that way if it is bad there's no cost involved other then the shipping. If you soak it yourself, then dry it again you're just increasing the chance of problems with the skins. You already have one questionable issue, if you have a swine skin that's wrapped in plastic it might have kept bugs out, but that also means it was never dipped when it entered the U S, and the USDA doesn't take a situation like that too lightly, I'd get it to a licensed facility, if by some chance USDA would come to your shop and find that you could have the whole shop quarantined.

[ae walsh]

Thanks for the advice, Keith. Just for my own knowledge however, these hides came through a USDA facility and I paid for the dip and pack. Should I be concerned that they slipped through, or did someone just leave the hide wrapped when it shouldn't have been? Thanks again.

[Keith Daniels]

If the paper work was done, you're in the clear, that's all I'll say about that.

[SivkoFur]

what kieth said X 2