Im very new to taxidermy and understand i can done my own birds! But a buddy or two are willing to donate a couple to help me get started! I dont plan to charge them, but is it legal? And if it is what would be the cheapest way to mount them? For now ive been buying the complete set, for 24 dollars. Is this the cheapest way?
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Before you take anyone else's birds, you'd better apply for and get your Federal License. It comes with the directives that will keep you out of hot water. You can be "gifted" a bird, but it then becomes yours and you can't trade, barter, or sell your services for doing it. Absolutely no money or materials can exchange hands or be promised or implied. Secondly, when they are gifted to you, they are yours and now become part of your possession limit. If you have more than it's legal to possess, you're in trouble again. Best advice is to stay away from what you're implying.
Secondly, there is no such thing as a CHEAPEST way. If you intend on being a taxidermist, you should insist on doing it the RIGHT way. That means using the best products and procedures available to insure your talents are best displayed. Cutting little corners ends up with round plates. Your first pieces are going to look badly enough to you in five or six years anyway, so give yourself a head start. Do it right the first time. Redundancy will take care of the improvements.
Like the Nike commercial"Just do it"...Most of us got started this same way.If you want to learn mount everything you can get your hands on. As long as the specimens you are accepting have been legally taken, don't even worry. The state (all 50 of them) cannot regulate a hobby.You do have constitutionally protected rights. Have you ever heard, Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. Here's 3 other tips you can use to insure you stay out of trouble, #1 rule, SHUT YOUR BIG FAT MOUTH! #2 rule, SHUT YOUR BIG FAT MOUTH! #3 rule, SHUT YOUR BIG FAT MOUTH!
And Ben Franklin said that the only way two people could ever keep a secret is for one of them to be dead. Taking that dumb advice, you'd better start shooting your friends. Nothing hurts honest business worse than a crook hiding behind it.
There is no such thing as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" when it comes to handling state and federally protected wildlife! Calling it a hobby doesn't matter!
For instance, you can buy a nice pair of live wood ducks to keep in your own aviary as long as the seller has the correct permits, but no matter how many babies they have you can't sell any of them or give them away unless you TOO go through the process of getting a seller's permit. Your "hobby" is federally controlled!
Now, if your buddies are giving you the birds with NO intentions of taking them back when they are mounted then I THINK you will be OK as long as they are legally taken. Especialy if they are upland birds. However, I would not bet on this being true in every state. If they are ducks, geese or other migratory birds you should have a tag on them with the hunter's name, address, the species, the date and where it was killed as well as the hunter's signature. (I also like to put their hunting license # on the tag.) You also need something in writing saying that they have given you the birds for your own use.
In all of the states that I know of, it is OK to mount your OWN birds FOR YOURSELF without a permit. Just don't pass them on to anybody else other than your parents, wife, kids, or siblings.
George is right about the supplies. Also, you are probably paying MORE by buying the kits than you would by just buying what you NEED to get from the suppliers (bodies, eyes, artificial heads if you use them, etc.) and picking up borax, wire, clay, batting or fiberfill, needles and thread etc. from local sources.
Nancy M.
I would not promote taking illegally killed specimens for practice, but..if they were taken legally and you do not go over your possesion limit, I guess they are now your birds. Do the legal thing. I am in your position now and am tired of spending money on practice birds from legal sellers when I have friends saying that they would let me practice on thier bird. Either they are going to rip it up to eat it or I skin it and give them what meat I can. Now I have the skin, they have the meat...who is in possesion?..I would say both of us...legally. But how does this hurt the wildlife? I more than anything have found that the more I mount with shorter time in between the more I learn and the better my mounts get. I want to improve..and yes practice is what gets the most results. Finally, there is the letter of the law and the intent of the law...therefore do not accept illegally taken wildlife, suspect wildlife or even ask friends to "get you a couple". Don't sell them ...use them to learn. Not to sound silly but the only difference between taking legally killed birds for practice and buying them is someone "paid" the government for a license, unfortunately I feel the law is more about the money than it is the ducks..if it were more about the ducks the skies would be filled...like they should be.
Have you ever heard of the Supremacy Clause.When you break it down,It goes something like this, U.S. Constitution.. The constition shall be the supreme law of the land, and any law which is in conflict or repugnent to is null and void. Just because your legislature has passed and put a law on the books does not make that law constitutional.Null and void... Nada...Nothing... Read supreme court cases, the U.S.Constitution.
Maybe you don't beleive that life,liberty,and pursuit of happiness exsist but our U.S.Supreme Court does. I also tend to agree with them as do many patriotic americans. As soon as citizens start standing up for there rights through Lobby,jury nullification,and just showing up to vote for people who regard our constitution as the supreme law of the land we all will be better served.
Nancy, just because the state calls it law does not make it law. It is only acting under "color of law". If the states could get away with it everything we do would require permits, licenses, regulation. I hope there are not to many like yourself out there that do not beleive in the right to life liberty and pursuit of happiness or we shall all be doomed to shackles of the government.
I am to assume, then, that you are operating a taxidermy studio with no licenses or permits at all. To do otherwise would be to accuse you of being a hypocrite, and I don't normally insult people just for disagreeing with me. Or, maybe you aren't a taxidermist at all - just an anarchist.
If you ARE a taxidermist, I can certainly see why you don't use a real name!
By the way, the example I used (selling captive-bred wood ducks) is referring to a federal law, not a state law.
The REAL law of this land is this:
Are you ready?
Paying attention?
MONEY TALKS!
And judges listen!
Nancy, If that is your real name? It dosen't much matter.And I won't ask you to post your SS#. I go by Mossy, I just threw in the old mounter because that's what i've been for 20 some years. The last 5 without being privileged by the state. So hypocrite, I think not. Antarchist, that hardly fits. Citizen of the USA, Patriot, Tax payer, and LAW ABIDING,when the law is in conformance with the supreme law.I think that fits better.
I do say Sorry to you, I guess I acted a little hasty when I responded. But the facts are that I didn't even read your entire post. All I could get past was "there is no such thing as Life,Liberty,and Pursuit of Happiness" and I almost had a heart attack. I guess I assumed (and we all know what happens when we do that)that you are a Citizen of the US. Is it possible that I am wrong? So I guess I need to ask! Are you a United States Citizen?
You see Nancy, I am a true american, a good citizen in my community. I volunteer 18-20 hrs. per week to local programs,Pay my fair share of taxes,and yes I am a law abiding citizen when the laws are legit. But as a citizen of the USA I have a duty to live by the constitution and if I find that a law that interfers with my protected rights, yes I will,I must and have stood up against the Massive Machine of intrusive Government.
Hypocrite, I am not. Yes I do operate without any permission of privlege from the state because I did stand up against the machine. Almost 2yrs. of ligitation, 4 different judges, 3 different state prosecuters and close to $10,000.00 EXPENSE FOR THE GOV. I guess thats why they leave me alone now and allow me to operate in my occupation(taxidermy)of common right. Never get bothered anymore,not like the days when I consented to giving up my rights for state privleges,to be there bookeeper,agent. And to think, it cost me around $300.00 and about 500 hundred hrs. of research.I may have lost some of the battle, but wound up winning the war. A very small price to pay for protecting God Given Rights, If I do say so. Remember this great nation was founded on a small amount of patriot citizens that said NO to oppressive government. No to a 1% tax, NO to unwarrented searches, No to being told you only have privleges and not rights. Be thankful for patriotic citizens who have enough Hutsbah to stand up and be heard and are not intimidated by the heavy hand.
So Nancy, Please believe in your protected rights, Life Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness these are things we can't and must not ever give up. Yes they truly do exsist.
I don't believe it is accurate to refer to yourself as a law-abiding citizen if you pick and choose to only abide by laws which you like and agree with. Most criminals do the same thing in order to justify themselves in their own minds. I am NOT calling you a criminal, by the way, just pointing out a fact of human nature.
I am indeed a US citizen, and I am PROUD to call myself a LAW-ABIDING citizen at that! Even when I think the laws are stupid and short-sighted (which many are) I choose to abide by them because that is the way I was raised. I don't have a problem with authority.
This entire society is on a fast track to destruction anyway, laws or no laws, and I am content to live my life the way I choose - with no apologies to anybody. The United States constitution is a very good document. It's a shame what lawyers and civil liberties groups have twisted it into.
For instance, I am guilty of violating a thief's constitutional rights if I deliberately leave hazards around my own property to prevent him from robbing me in safety.
What's wrong with this picture?
Nancy M.
Nancy, I do agree with some of your inturpretations. But It is a citizens duty when they see bad law passed by some of the numbskull lawmakers that have year after year been re-elected,to stand up and fight against them. When laws are instituted that convert rights to privileges,they are bad laws and good citizens will fight tooth and nail no matter what the consequences may be.
I asked you the question about citizenship to prove a point. Now I'm sure you are a good honest law abiding United States Citizen as most people of this country beleive they are. I am not a citizen of the United States,I am a United States Citizen. In legal sense (called legal-eze)Just changing those words around changes who holds jurisdiction over whom. When you are a CITIZEN OF you are giving power to, thus giving up rights that are supposed to be Guaranteed. When you make such a little change you retain your gauranteed rights, rights every Citizen was granted by our forfathers. This is a prime example of the tricky little way they have tried to make us all into sheep. If we sit back and allow Gov. to dictate everything in our life by creating more laws,which we are doing everyday, sooner rather than later all our rights will be gone. When they get all the sheep following whithout protest they will then convert our GOD GIVEN rights of breathing air,moving about,engaging in a occupation of our own choosing (LIFE LIBERTY AND PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS) into privilege and charge a fee and license.
Yes, it is mine and your duty to strike down bad laws whenever we recognize them. The Honorable Supreme Court Justice JON JAY once stated"THE JURY HAS THE RIGHT TO JUDGE BOTH THE LAW AS WELL AS THE FACTS IN CONTROVERCY". SO Nancy If your are ever called to jury duty, before you rule remember: judge the facts and evidence and also judge the law (regardless of what the judge orders you to do)and if it is a bad law strike it down with a not guilty vote. Because the jury of citizens holds the supreme power in the courtroom, the judge is just the referee.
Nancy, Just a quick follow-up on what I just wrote. I was sitting here reading and happen to run across something quite fitting. A Quote from President Abraham Lincoln "THE PEOPLE ARE THE MASTERS OF CONGRESS AND COURTS,NOT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION, BUT TO OVERTHROW THE MEN WHO PERVERT IT!" Have a great day!
It still stands that the law states that you cannot mount migratory birds for other people without the federal license. So Tony, I guess its up to you now. We can argue all day about this, but it still stands that if you do it without the license you may end up in court. You may win. Do you want that hasle for a 25 dollar license?
Hey MOM, good for you, stick to your principles, but Tony needs to make this descision based on the facts, and how far he wants to go to make a point. I doubt that 25 bucks is that important to him. Obviously your battle didnt illiminate the license, so it still is the law, and when the majority stands behind you im sure we wont need to get it anymore.
Good arguments though, but Im not sure that this is what Tony wanted to hear.
WoW didnt expect all the responce! LOL but i did enjoy reading all the conversations! i think i will pick a diff. battle to fight and just get my license! Thanks for your post mom and nancy!