One of the bigger "hidden" costs of going to Africa is the crating and shipping of trophies and I was wondering why no one seems to have made an effort to consolidate the shipment of unmounted trophies to save money. It seems to me that it would be quite a bit cheaper to send a whole seasons worth of trophies back to someone in the USA at one time...maybe by boat. The trophies could then be separated and sent to the appropriate destinations.

Is this idea totally off-base?

There was a recent development in this area regarding USFW officials cracking down on consolidation of shipments.

If I remember correctly it has to do with being able to clearly identify who the trophies were taken by. Labeling was not enough. I will try to find the article that I think was in the Hunting Report in September or October issue.

Here is the article from the HR:


USF&W Cracking Down On Trophy Shipments




If you are a US citizen and you are about to board a plane for a hunt anywhere in the world, be aware that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has begun to crack down on a practice some hunters use to save money on trophy shipments. That practice is the consolidation of more than one hunters’ trophies under a single register and/or hunting permit.
The service says the practice distorts their statistics and prevents them from obtaining a clear picture of who is hunting and importing what around the world. To put an end to it, the service has vowed to block all improperly consolidated trophy shipments it detects, allowing only the trophies of the person whose name appears on the register and/or permit to go through. All of the other trophies will have to be sent back to the country of origin for re-export. If that is not possible, or the hunter elects not to do it, the trophies will be seized.

We are indebted to Corporate Sponsor, Carol Rutkowski of Coppersmith for word of this development. She says the service has been threatening a crackdown in this area for some time, and has finally made good on its threat. Last month, she says, an improperly consolidated shipment was blocked in Chicago, and she hears it is the first of a wave of such actions.

The new US Fish and Wildlife Service action, it should be noted, is distinct from a fairly new US Customs automated manifest requirement that all hunters’ trophies be shipped in separate crates. That requirement, which went into effect January 2004, addressed only the shipping-crate issue. The new US F&W requirement addresses the larger issue of hunting permits and what are called hunting registers.

In most countries, a separate hunting register is supposed to be filled out for every hunter who goes afield and then wants to export trophies. Almost everywhere, every hunter is also supposed to buy a hunting permit as well. Costs are associated with both documents. Hence the temptation to skirt the requirements and simply consolidate trophies into one shipment.

Up to now, many hunters have made no effort to hide the fact that they have improperly consolidated their trophies. Single shipments have been reaching port of entry with multiple hunters’ names on different trophies. And it is this practice that makes it easy for the Fish and Wildlife Service to detect improperly consolidated shipments.

So, what is to stop hunters from simply putting one hunter’s name on all the trophies in a consolidated shipment? Technically, nothing. And, if only a few trophies are involved, the practice might go undetected. But it should be noted that filing a deliberately false government document is a violation of law. Doing so now, in the face of an announced crackdown, may be inviting trouble. That’s particularly true if the false document seeks to mask illegal hunting activity in a foreign country – e.g., hunting without a license issued in one’s name.

Our advice here at The Hunting Report is to take this new crackdown very seriously. Hunting on someone else’s permit and then shipping your trophies on someone else’s register has always been illegal. It defrauds the host country. And that is just what might land you in big trouble here. On the face of it, all the feds want to do with their latest crackdown is improve their international record-keeping. In the process, they might turn up a treasure trove of Lacey Act violations

Sounds like the fox is guarding the hen house.

Bureaucratic a)*holes, what business is it of theirs? Fire half of them I say and put the rest to work taking care of NORTH AMERICAN game.

Unfortunately the regulations are not governed by the Africa side of the story BUT by your USA guys.

I think you chaps in USA are more hindered by officail red tape ans other cr.p than our Africa guys at times !!!

To cut a long story short, hunting is under threat worldwide, the way these SOB's attack us is not by banning hunting Perse' BUT by giving us GRIEF to export trophies and guns.

The next thing you will come up against is some AIRLINES will be highjacked by the (villians and antis) and some UN resolution or other crap orginisation will eventually BAN YOU from transporting your guns to hunt, believe me that is the next BIG CHALLENGE we collectively face, so dont ignore my concers

Finally contract a GOOD Taxi in BOTH Africa & the USA and minimise your heartache

Peter

Yes the US bureaucracy is terrible. They are mainly concerned with perpetuating their jobs.

There is nothing about the regs that would prevent an organization from consolidating all the shipments at the end of the season and negotiating a good rate with the volume.

The orders would have to be crated seperately to make it legal but that would be the only hitch.