Two years in a row now I have had problems importing my African trophies to Vancouver. The first time it was from Zambia and this time from South Africa. The trophies have been prepared by professionals in Africa who know their business and have reputations to uphold and have been received in Vancouver by a well known importer of trophies. Both times the federal agents found the skulls and skins to be unacceptable by Canadian standards. The trophies had to be re-packed in special boxes approved by the Canadian government and shipped off to a specially licensed taxidermist in Alberta for "decontamination". Only then could they be sent on to my taxidermist. Obviously this has cost me a great deal of extra money and frustration...
What kind of scam is this by the feds?? Has anybody else encountered these problems?

It's pretty well standard operating procedure with CFIA now for the past couple years. They may not have even inspected your crates...they just automatically have to go to a CFIA certified taxidermist for treatment. It seems some regions of Canada are not as bad but in Vancouver and Calgary it's nearly 100% go for treatment. It's really got nothing to do with the condition of your trophies when they arrive and everything to do with the way certain CFIA office interpret the regulations. SCI has been actively fighting this.

My trophies that came in to Vancouver from Tanzania in September did not have to go through this process.
Even had a snafu with the cites paperwork from Tz and all went smooth. My cites leopard export permit went to USA with another shipment and the other persons cites permit was with mine. It turned out to be the airline that switched the paperwork, but they made good and got the right paperwork within 3 days.

I have also heard but am unable to confirm that going through Calgary you will be garanteed secondary disinfection due the taxidermist who does it in Calgary putting a bug in CFIA's ear to help his business.

I used Ron's Wildlife service out of Vancouver and their prices were reasonable and they kept in constant communication with me and my outfitter in TZ.

They advised that the secondary disinfection was a crap shoot on shipments from Africa. Typical burocratic bs from our federal public waste of timers.

I used Ron's Wildlife service in Vancouver for my shipment last year. No Issues.

I have also been using Ron's Wildlife Services. They are a great company to work with and have successfully imported my trophies from South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina, and Slovakia. It is just these last two times that my animals have been deemed contaminated and sent off for treatment. Otherwise they would be destroyed or could be sent back to Africa. Maybe these are just random searches and I have been very unlucky...

In October, I had a shipment come from New Zealand through Vancouver to Edmonton.
Dale Warren with Talon Distribution handled the clearing process, no issues.
A friend of mine also used Talon last year, for a shipment from Argentina, to Edmonton and no issues.

Edmonton is a little closer.....

I brought a lion and gemsbok through Vancouver this summer, did the CFIA inspection, turns out the fellow was a hunter. Was AOK and I paid my taxes and was kicked out the door, whole deal took about 2hrs and some wrangling in person with the customs agents. Declaring a "Lion in a box" is only slightly worse than a Leopard in a box I suppose. Think there's some luck of the draw there.