I am sorry JJ but I have to disagree with you. I dont like the law any better than anyone else. However, it is the law period. As such I have to abide by it. You can not pick and choose which laws you will obey and which you will knowingly violate. This would be the same if I decided to poach 10 elephant because I didnt agree with the law. Yes, this is taking it to the point of being ludicrous but it does show my point. Is this a minor isssue? Absolutely! Ethics is not about major or minor issues. It is about doing the right thing.I am not tearing you or anyone else down. That is not my intent. It was only to show the bigger picture. Someone could make an assumption by inductive reasoning that if a person is willing to violate one law then they might be willing to violate others as well. It could paint a very bad picture of us and I dont believe that it is worth it.

Mike S, As I said some of these discussions never seem to get anywhere. I also pointed out the savings is not really a significant issue within Africa, but rather upon entry to the states. It's the legal need of a broker for multiple ownership within a container that leads to the high expense. Individual handleing fees in shipping can also be expensive. So why not combine a shipment?

I'm not at all testy, I'm smiling and quite content right now! If there is a way without breaking any laws that will save some money your all for it and so am I. So far as I can tell the game being exported all needs to be accounted for on paperwork. To that end it is being done 100% is it really any matter if it's all accunted for on one PH register or Two? The laws are bieng followed 100% to insure that RSA has kept track of every trophy leaving the country. Whether or not it's in one name or two they are still certain to be 100% sure all were harvested legally. I find that it's in my hunters best interest to find anyway I can to assit them saving money. That is part of my job afterall. It's easy to just tell them good luck pay whatever anyone asks of you. I try to make this the most enjoyable time of their lives and to also make the effort as seemless and inexpensive as possible.

Many of those hunters who visit this site regular have hunted with me and will tell you and anyone else that I'm a law abiding PH with a good reputation. However there are ways to juggle the rules after all. We don't make them we must however play by them. Very much like taxes in the USA Right? Is that not why you hire expensive tax consultants to figure out how to legally allow you to keep more of your money. You're playing by the rules made by others. But your still playing the game!

Yet another reason to just take some photos and leave everything else over there.

I don't think we have anyone to blame for this ruling except the 9/11 bunch that caused all of these new regulations to be formulated in the first place. The new customs ruling, no more combined trophies for multiple hunters, stems from the U.S. Customs requirement that airlines are required to do advanced cargo manifest eletronic transmission hours prior to actual aircraft arrival at the U.S. port of entry. This electronic report to customs allows only one shipper/one consigee. In other words, hunters now have to have their own crate or crates/own housebill/own set of documents/own clearance. The compliance dates on this particular ruling started in the Eastern U.S. on August 13, 2004, Central U.S. on October 13, and for us here in the West Coast, it will be December 13, 2004. Now in most countries that set of documents will come from the Gov't Agency (Game Department) that you got your license and export permits from.

Mike, I don't think you can fake it.

Rich Elliott

That's really stupid!