Do you let the customer have his turkey meat?

Not a chance on birds or fish. Since I have a walk-in cooler, I will occasionally store customer's game if they request it, but they are gonna quarter it out after we skin it.

 

In Mn,and I think Montana you have to remove the meat or its "wanton waste"....I tell customers to remove it themselves and tell them how to cut it out.......never had a bad insicion yet...

 

I never let them have their turkey meat back. Just seems wrong! But as soon as they are out of the drive way I skin that sucker and he's into the smoker 8) 8)

 

I will give it back if is a fresh kill. If It comes in frozen I tell them no way as it will take a less 3 days to threw. I have a waver contract for them to sign .

 

Same here....I can't see wasting that amount of good meat. If they don't want it I save it for friends or myself.

 

If they come in fresh, I will skin and give the whole body back to them, Blood and all. I put in a bag with a card from my studio saying " this meat is unfit for human consumtion" I sign it and also have customer sign it. I keep copy of it. I do not cut meat off the body for them. They get it back all bloody so if they want to eat it they have to clean it themselfs. Frozen birds no way.
Gregg Ielfield

 

Gregg, being that youre well known as a turkey specialist, you see this all the time. But doesnt it worry you because of us being in the good old state of New York, sue happy NY?? Lol.

 

I've got hard core turkey hunting clients and outfitters that I trust to carefully make an incision and remove the breast meat themselves and I've never had a problem with them doing it, however they've been shown how. I don't think I would let the everyday guy or gal do it, as it could turn out to be a big mess. If it comes in the shop whole they don't get the meat back, I agree with the liability issue.

 

Yes Bill, I do worry
The last few years fewer customers have gotten there meat back from me. I do think this year will be the year it all goes in my outdoor wood stove. The fat really helps in heating the pool up. LOL
Gregg Ielfield

 

Not that anybody need my endorsment but after 40 yrs plus our shop has been very carefull not to tempt fates in the courts here in NY. NO FISH FOWL gets returned to customers . We always use the reasoning that the chemicals we use ( disicants) in the skinning process renders the flesh inedible. I always use borax as a disicant on fish and fowl to keep my hands dry and not slippery. Just the way we work. THERE NOT EDIBLE!!!! Yea I know you could use cornmeal but get serious why gamble on someone getting sick on a dirty scalpel blade .OH I am a taxidermist not a meat processor. I have had noone cancell an order because they could not get their meat back.

 

I have done it a few times for good clients, but it's a pain at times. I don't think I will be doing it any longer. If they want the breast, I will instruct them how to skin it out.

 

Thats a good one Bill !

 

as long as someone mentioned fish.....I know a taxidermist that got an irs audit ,when the agent ,who was amazed by his showroom and thought the mounts were still whole......well he asked what he did with the meat....he casually answered that he sometimes ate the walleye meat......the agent then went through his records of every walleye and made him claim every pound of meat per fish at X.95 per pound ,current market price......and claim it as income!

 

Ouch! Maybe he shoulda gone into as much detail as to how he voided the waste...if you get my drift...

 

NO : I am a taxidermist, it is my job to preserve and mount your trophy to the best of my ability
I am NOT a butchershop
I am NOT a grocery store
I am NOT a holder of a USDA permit nor a food sanitation license
I hold a federal migratory bird permit and a state of Il. taxidermy license and as such:

When you decided to have your animal mounted you already gave up the rights to any part of the carcass, period.
This is all explained politely and with etiquette to my customers and I have never had one go away angry or lost business as such.
If they want to do it in the field, that is fine but I have to look at it at delivery, if it is destroyed in their attempt I make the discretionary call myself whether I want to mount it.
I check all birds and fish at delivery for pinfeathers, decomp. severe feather loss or extreme unrepairable damage and I tell them up front if I don't feel comfortable mounting it or if any problems will affect the outcome of the mount.It is a good idea to have them thaw out the animals before bringing them so you can properly check all these things.I don't like surprises at all.Having to call a customer after trying to skin a duck with slipping feathers or pinfeathers is not my idea of a good time.

 

I'm not pro giving meat back to customers but I have some questions. How many cases happen from taxidermists giving back meat and people getting sick? Is there anyone out there that has got sued or taken to court over this issue?
It sure seems game is safer to eat than what comes out of these large processing plants.

 

Typically no but like everything else there's exceptions to the rule. The last turkey I did the guy shot it on a cool morning (under 50 degrees) and had it in a freezer within the hour. He claims to have shot it at 60 yards which I believe him because there wasn't a single pellet in the bird besides a few in the head/neck. I offered the meat to the guy and he was glad to have it. He was also a friend....which is the only reason I bothered. What do you guys do with your early season Canadas or teal shot when it's ninety out? I guess they must toss every Osceola because unless their immediately put in a cooler they're going to contain more bacteria in a half hour than the majority of turkeys shot up north after a day rolling around in a pickup bed.

I'd say 75% of the meat that goes through a shop is fine. People are way too squemish about wild game these days. They use to ship fowl across half the country by rail during the market hunting era for the elite to eat as delicacies in fancy restaurants. This was decades before the invention of refrigeration. Old timers used to let birds "cure" which often meant nailing them up and waiting for the neck to rot; when the body dropped it was ready to cook. The reason why wild turkey and most game sucks is because people overcook it to where it has the consistency of boot leather because they're afraid of getting sick.

The reason giving meat back is a bad idea is why add all that hassle? Cutting the meat off, packaging it, freezing it, calling the guy, and then having him talk your ear off for an hour a few days after he dropped it off and took up an hour then is bad business. Unless you're charging him a couple hours of shop time you're losing money on it.

 

???
Liability,liability,liability.

Too many chemicals around the meat.Wether you think so or not.

 

Just going off of how I skin a bird out, I'm confused as to where you guys believe they're coming into contact with chemicals. I want a clean surface to work on so I typically wipe down my counter. Nine times out of ten I skin the bird out on the plastic bag it was frozen in. The only thing I can think of the meat coming in contact with is some borax, which isn't toxic and rinsed right out.

I don't eat customer birds because it's taboo. With a lot of people I kind of feel like a redneck sideshow as it is...and hate being asked if I eat the meat. I usually answer, "why would I eat that junk when I can find fresh roadkill?" or "Gross. With the money I make doing taxidermy I eat fillet mignon 5-6 nights a week."

But I'd be lying if I said there hasn't been a couple times in spring or summer, months after all my birds from hunting season have been rellished and consumed, where after skinning out a nice rooster that took a golden pellet to just the head I cut the breasts out and took it home for dinner. I'm not going to eat bile but I'm not going to turn down free chicken.