Stuffed bird seller gets jail for wildlife crimes (1 Viewer)

[Peewit]

Hi there

Found this article in my local free paper on Sunday February 12/2/2012 :C

http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/...-make-stuffed-bird-seller-twitch-10022012.htm

Stuffed bird seller gets jail for wildlife crimes.

This piece of humankind tried to sell the birds on e-bay along with faked documents to clear the sale and make it legal to interested buyers from all over the world. His jail sentence is eight months, including the fruad he committed.

At least it is a step in the right direction for people who harm wild birds or any wildlife for no reason other than for personal gain.

Regards
Kathy
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[Peewit]

Try this link as I think the other one I presented in my first post is broken for some reason.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-16988741

Hope that e-bay have locked onto him now, and banned him from using their site.

Regards
Kathy
x

 

[kawwauser]

nice one i have always had a sneaking suspicion regarding taxidermists,birds just dont suddenly drop dead,the corpses i have come across were either car fatalitys/shot/starvation/cat, all very messy or decomposed ,finding a reliable source of dead well preserved quite often rare birds legally would be simply impossable

 

[Peewit]

nice one i have always had a sneaking suspicion regarding taxidermists,birds just dont suddenly drop dead,the corpses i have come across were either car fatalitys/shot/starvation/cat, all very messy or decomposed ,finding a reliable source of dead well preserved quite often rare birds legally would be simply impossable

i am thinking that to......a corpse would have to be perfect otherwise it would be deemed as damaged in some way...therefore unsaleable. So there must be a hidden agenda that has been on the go until things went wrong.

So much red tape to try to understand about the whole trade.

I am not against taxidermists as long as it is legal, and above board and I am sure many of them are. People who do what this person has done is putting the whole industry on the line for other decent people.

Regards
Kathy
x

 

[Adam W]

nice one i have always had a sneaking suspicion regarding taxidermists,birds just dont suddenly drop dead,the corpses i have come across were either car fatalitys/shot/starvation/cat, all very messy or decomposed ,finding a reliable source of dead well preserved quite often rare birds legally would be simply impossable

Sorry but that simply isnt true,I'm sure there is the odd rogue taxidermist out there as with anything in life but good condition and often fairly unusual birds are easy enough to come by. The vast majority come from road casulties I guess. To give just a few examples I myself have found a fresh good condition Water Rail in my local swimming baths car park,a Ring Ouzel on the pavement outside a shop in Sunderland city centre, a Barn Owl on the side of the A1 and a Long Tailed Duck on a beach in Northumberland all of which either me or my brother have had mounted. Thats to to mention literally dozens of others i've driven past on road sides or found washed up on local beaches,Buzzard,Tawny Owl,Gannet,Eider,Little Auk to name but a few.

 

[Robin Edwards]

nice one i have always had a sneaking suspicion regarding taxidermists,birds just dont suddenly drop dead,the corpses i have come across were either car fatalitys/shot/starvation/cat, all very messy or decomposed ,finding a reliable source of dead well preserved quite often rare birds legally would be simply impossable

I agree with Adam, this assessment is in my mind wrong.

I've had birds professionally mounted in the past by a reputable taxidermist and none of the corpses were damaged in the slightest having died from a fatal collision. Just from local sources where birds have hit patio windows over a fifteen or so year period I've been brought Kingfisher,Green Woodpecker and believe it or not Water Rail - also Sparrowhawk & Barn Owl (both road) - all in pristine condition.

The Taxidermist I used at the time did most of his work from the Falconry trade where owners wanted to retain the animals they had kept so his subjects didn't ordinarily come from wild birds. He was very stringent on the subjects having legal credentials.

As for this guy in the Beds on Sunday - well that may well be another story but I think his crime was trying to sell unregistered birds rather than being found guilty of killing them.

 

[crabplover]

a corpse would have to be perfect otherwise it would be deemed as damaged in some way...therefore unsaleable.

Thats not strictly true, some groups of birds eg corvids are tough as old boots and can take ages to decay beyond use. They are often used by student taxidermists to practise on because they are so tough.

Naturally the smaller the species and the amount of fat on the corpse has a factor in its 'shelf life' - between death and freezing prior to being skinned and mounted.

When out in the field birding or driving along the roads especially in the spring in the early morning its amazing what you can find, and the condition it is still in.
Dont forget birds that are killed by cars are often hit or clipped and they then bounce onto the side of the road maybe only losing a couple of feathers, (Pigeons excluded).
It's only when they are actually squashed that they become unusable.

The actual process in preparing the skin for mounting is an eye opener!
Dunked in white spirit or petrol, washed in daz flakes (other brands are available), dried in sepolita (chinchilla sand) then using a hairdryer- during this process not a single feather is dropped - unless its a Pigeon (!), and when mounted the dried feathers are combed into place.

It's important not to forget the value as an educational tool a mounted specimen or a museum skin.

Not all Taxidermists are guilty before proved innocent, as mentioned in the above post, it is the bad apples that let the whole industry down, like with any trade.
These are the ones that quite rightly need to be brought to justice, as in this case.

My understanding of the law, if you are a taxidermist selling your work, you have to have the documentation and licences for holding and selling certain species.
If you are an amateur doing it for yourself and don't sell your work, you don't need any paperwork at all other than a data label (this may have changed I've not checked)
A useful website on the subject can be found here:
http://www.taxidermylaw.co.uk/trade/taxidermist.cfm

Andy.

 

[Richard Klim]

I see that this concerns a stuffed-bird seller. At least the result is a stuffed bird-seller.

 

[dantheman]

I see that this concerns a stuffed-bird seller. At least the result is a stuffed bird-seller.

(Only temporary in his case though.)