My brother has been boiling and whitening deer & bear skulls for a good many years now. Several years ago he was told that he needed a taxidermy license in order to continue doing them so he got his license and has kept it current.

Well the game warden came by a couple months ago and asked to see his records. My brother showed him the names and
check-in confirmation #'s for everyone he had done a head for. Game warden said that was not good enough and wrote him a ticket saying he should have hunters address, ph. #, date of kill, date head was brought to him and date it was picked up. He also told him that he needed to update all of his records for the past 3 years before he came back or he would issue him another ticket.

My brother was just going to pay the fine and forget about it but was told he had to appear in court. While waiting in the courthouse a lawyer friend of ours saw him and asked why he was there. Upon hearing the reason he told my brother to follow him to a back room. He gave him a state law book and told him to read a certain part to the judge.

The judge asked my brother what his "taxidermy practice" consisted of whereupon he told him that he boiled skulls. The judge then asked if he had anything to say in his defense and he read from the book our lawyer friend gave him.

What did he read you ask?...the state definition of a taxidermist.
Taxidermy - The art or operation of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of dead animals for exhibition in a lifelike state.
Taxidermist - A craftsman who stuffs and mounts the skins of animals for display

The judge dismissed the case.

I have 2 questions...
1. Why is the hunter's name and his check-in confirmation # not enough for his records?
and...
2. If the court does not consider what he does as taxidermy why does he even need a license?

Sounds like the warden was having a bad day.

Well since he has not performed any taxidermy then he hasn't any taxidermy records to produce. His appearance in court was a blessing. He does not it seems need a lic. However with the popularity of euro mounts growing i suspect it will be included in the law at some point in the future. In the mean time i do not think you will hear from the GW.

Virginia Code Section 29.1-415 states that "the fee for a permit to stuff or mount birds, animals, fish or "˜part thereof,' for compensation or for sale shall be forty dollars per year."

This code may differ from that of a State definition of a taxidermist or taxidermy, I don't know. All the other data I do not know if all that is required if it is just a permit and not a Lic. or if the permit is a Lic. Things are too complicated today.


Was he charging for doing it? If so then yes, a Lic. or permit I guess a fee is required. "part thereof" is I guess the catch. But if he was not charging then I do not see why he would need a anything.


Earl

This highlights what I believe to be a huge problem and injustice with the district court system and Virginia: the Prosecutors don't do their job. Unless a defendant is represented by a lawyer, and even then in some of those cases, the prosecutors do not review or in any way get involved in the case. The prosecutor should review every misdemeanor and traffic case to make sure that the complaint actually states a charge under the law, and that the facts reasonably support a finding of guilty. By not doing this, the system is inherently corrupt. The Judge, who should be a neutral and unbiased finder of fact, ends up taking on the role of prosecutor because he is the one that propounds the case and questions the witnesses. How can a Judge reasonably remain impartial in that circumstance? Also as a result officers do not receive proper guidance on what they have not correctly or incorrectly, why the case should not go forward, etc. Also they are the ones setting recommendations for guilty pleas. This is troubling because sentencing recommendations should be the result of a detached evaluation of the case. If I were a judge I would throw out every case where the commonwealth failed to represent itself with a prosecutor.

A few months ago I was in court in Bedford with two trespassing charges against a felon I caught on my property. A Sherriff Deputy went to great lengths to help me identify the guy and serve him with the warrants. I made a 9 hour round trip to swear out the warrants and another to go to the court date. A few days before the court date I called the commonwealth attorney's office because I had few questions about the law and how I would need to prove the case. Every docket is assigned a prosecutor and I asked to speak to the prosecutor assigned to the docket my case was on. The lady that answered the phone refused to let me speak to the prosecutor. Since there was not attorney on record for the defendant, they considered it to be just a private complaint and would not assist me with answering simple questions. Even though it was a criminal case in state court. This was just mind blowing to me. Thankfully I was able to get the conviction.

Barry, your brother was lucky that he got guidance from a friend before court. But the criminal justice system shouldn't depend on luck like that. The prosecutor for that court should already have reviewed the case and been able to articulate why the case should or should not have gone forward.

Agreed Neill. Andy is still trying to figure out exactly what the law is and how it pertains to him in order to make sure he abides by it. Hard to do that when the game warden, the judge and another member of the game department all tell him something different.

Barry,

This is a recurring theme. I think part of the problem is too many laws. They just keep passing them without repealing the old ones. It tends to make things convoluted.

As I have gotten older I tend to push back more and more. Since your brothers case was overturned I would push the state to define the answers you seek. I would hunt down the game warden and have him look up the law and explain it to you. If they won't I would go after them in court for wrongful prosecution or something to that effect. We have wardens up here that think they know the law but when we read it they are wrong. We have had to straighten them out on multiple occasions.

I personally don't understand the need for such great detailed records even for Taxidermy. What purpose does it serve? I would also have a friendly conversation with the citing officer just to make sure he isn't going to burn you for other reasons. Some can carry a grudge.

Glad it is working in your favor. Hope it all works out.

Vic

This is just like when you go to get a permit to do construction on your home from your locality, you call to find out what you need and when you get there you suddenly need something else. It's never consistent, common problem in govt. at all levels. I know as I work in it and witness it everyday. Game wardens are a different breed according to other law enforcement I have had conversations with.

Man, I never knew. I have been skull mounting heads for a few years now.
I did have a conversation with a warden one Sunday morning I was out riding around.

I had two heads from Saturdays hunt in the bed of my truck, while we were parked next to each other he noticed the antlers of one of the heads (Both had been skint out)
I told him I do skull mounts and he asked if I mined him checking them out. I said no. Then he asked if I had the tags for them. They were in my door and I showed them to him.

He advised me to take them home and attach the tags to the skulls. He stated he could write me up for not having them properly attached to the skulls.
I told him I had the tags in the truck becuase I did not want them to blow off. He was pretty cool about the whole thing and I guest I see his point.
But he did not go into all the details your brother had to.

I guess I better be learning the laws a little beter.