Just picked my Namibia trophies up at the airport, and thought I'd pass along some pearls of wisdom:

Make sure if you're having your trophies prepared as European mounts overseas that the taxidermist does a really good job removing all non-bone tissue, particular from the nasal cavities. The federal vet told me that 90% of the shipments have to be re-dipped because of improper cleaning. That means a trip to an licensed taxidermist, and extra fees.

When you are arriving back in Canada after your hunt, make a declaration at Customs that you will be having goods following at a later date. That lets you claim them on your duty-free allowance set at that time, instead of having to pay the duty later, when they arrive. They give you a form that is matched up when your trophies arrive, and you get the duty-free allowance.

My own trophies did not have duty applied, but I did have to pay PST and GST on the value of the taxidermy work, but NOT the shipping and handling.

Hope you get the guy at Border Services who helped me today. Very polite, very efficient and helpful. However, the BS guy who was dealing with the folks who came in behind me was {ahem} less forgiving. Must have been the language barrier.

Don't let your trophies languish at the cargo depot, as the airline cargo may try to screw you for exhorbitant "storage" fees. My trophies arrived on Saturday, I was told I had to pick them up on a weekday, and they had to be inspected by the vet first. Contacted the vet Monday, inspection done Tuesday, and when I went to pick up today, Lufthanza tried to hit me for $50 storage fee (30 cents/kg/day, with $25 min./day, $50 min. storage fee - they said they were doing me a favour by only charging 2 days, instead of 3. I was rude enough that they waived the storage.)

Since I had not CITES animals and no issues with the vet inspection, I was able to clear everything myself.

Costs were:
$26.51 vet inspection
$105.00 PST/GST (yours would vary depending on number of trophies)
$60 cargo fee from the airline (I would have thought that would be included in the actual price I paid to have them shipped by plane, but I guess everybody wants a piece of the action. However, it was shipped by Swissair, but Lufthansa handled the ground work.)

My trophies were done by Nyati Wildlife Art, Windhoek, and the shipping was done by Pam Foerster of International Air Cargo Services.

quote:

Originally posted by WannabeBwana:
When you are arriving back in Canada after your hunt, make a declaration at Customs that you will be having goods following at a later date. That lets you claim them on your duty-free allowance set at that time, instead of having to pay the duty later, when they arrive. They give you a form that is matched up when your trophies arrive, and you get the duty-free allowance.

That is a very good bit of advice. I have done this three times myself and never picked up on that.

Your other comments exactly mirror my experience too...except I never had to pay for the vet inspection.

Cheers
Canuck

I haven't brought back any trophies from my last two safaris .. But the time before .. my shipment arrived the day I got home from chest surgery in Calgary. So my lady went back (2 1/2 hours) to Calgary to get them .. The lady customs officer was very rude ... and charged her duty on the trophy fees ... And would not listen to my outraged comments via cell phone. I had never ever had that charged to me before ... I was in no position to do battle ... Grrrrrrrrrrr !!! It looks like you weren't charged for that ????

Great suggestion on the exemption !!!

Cheers !!!

The guy I had took quite some time checking out the rules before he figured out what to charge me. I guess they got more different duty charges than Carter's got liver pills.

Set these up in my office today!

Wildebeest Euro mount, with Wildebeest fly whisk and Oryx hide with Oryx fly whisk



Oryx Euro mount. This is right behind my desk. The windows face south, and get sun most of the day. I don't bother to turn the lights on in my office, cuz whenever it's a sunny day and someone comes into my office, the light in the windows gives me an "aura".



Springbok Euro mount over my plant, and a close-up