So .... while I was in TX I had a long chat with the taxidermist who screwed up my bobcat. He promised to fix the cat, finish the fox, and make things right by me. He was also going to 2nd day ship me a bunch of skulls that were going to go in with the beetles. Well, I received 4 packages in the mail today.

Two of them were the skulls that he shipped FedEx ground that were stinking to high heaven and clearly rotting. The other two were the fox and the base that he goes on. I quickly found 5 holes in the pelt. The ears aren't symetrical, nor are the whiskers. I took some pictures of the holes that were obvious and have since found another. The tail was cut off at one point (why? I don't understand) and the staples he used to reattach it are coming out and look like crap.

Here are the pictures .....

Man that is soooo sad. That guy needs to be taken out back and taught a lesson. Maybe he needs a few holes put in his hide?

Man, That really sucks Heath. That guy really does need a lesson out back. What do you think you can do with this guy?
Good Luck

Wayne

I think the first thing you should do is to contact your PH and let him know about the poor work that guy does, and send him some photos to prove it. It will prevent him from recommending that guy to anyone else, and he may be able to put some pressure on the jerk. There is no excuse for that kind of work. Especially after you had been at his place complaining about work done on a prior animal.

This post has been edited by alpenliter: Dec 29 2006, 09:18 PM

Randy Watson was my guide. While we were there Mark (the taxidermist) wouldn't answer the phone when Randy or I called him. Randy knew Mark's dad, so we went to talk to him. He got a hold of Mark and said, "Randy Watson is here and needs to talk to you." Randy chewed the kid up and spit him out. Mark finally came in to the shop so we could talk to him. Obviously it didn't do any good.

Mark is really screwing up here because he is going to loose all of Randy's business over this. One of Randy's clients has more money than sense ... he hunts with Randy twice a year and has everything ( Did I say EVERYTHING??) he shoots mounted. I've seen the big game Mark does and it looks terrific. Perhaps he's just not a small animal kinda taxidermist.

Anyway, I won't be doing any more business with this taxidermist.

The unfortunate thing is that, even if you get you money back, you won't have the animal back. It's gone for good.

I agree. Jeph recommends a guy here in Ojai that I will go visit with the next animal I want mounted.

You can't make excuses for a bad job done twice. Does the guy smoke? Couldn't you cut and stitch those dark spots? Who wants to see that? The guy has to be high on glue fumes. He must no like you very much. What can you do on a botched job like that? Does he know you can shoot less than a nut sack at 100yrds?

The dark spots are actually the form the pelt is mounted on. So basically those black spots are holes in the hide. By the way, the only hole on this guy when he got dropped off was in the neck.

...That just PLAIN-SUCKS Heath...Sorry to see that mate.

I can't help buy wonder if he actually thought that I wouldn't see the holes in the pelt? He must think I am stupid ..... or should I say "Stoop-it" !!

It seriously looks like an angry 4th grader mounted it.

Yea, I talked to him today and told him my 10 year old could have done that and saved me a ton of money.

Heath, what are your options? Can you get your money back? Part of your money back?

Well Heath, hopefully you get your money back on the fox. I'm sure Randy will take care of it. If not, his dad will, LOL. I'm fairly worried about my rug at this point. Luckily he's not doing the tanning, but he still has to mount the head. Maybe we can have him just send EVERYTHING back once it's tanned, and you can have Chuck or Darius do the rugs. Oh crap, I forgot about your brothers dog. Ah well, maybe he wont screw that one up since the hides a bit thicker..

Hey, if you need a hande with those rotten skulls, let me know. You shouldn't have to deal with those nasty things by yourself...

If he is doing this to you, what is he doing to others? BAD BUSINESS Maybe cause he thinks those Californians don't know And what could that possibaly do to his business from over there. This isn't the first time, as we have seen from your cat-like mount.

I tore into him on the phone the other day. The fox is going back and he's going to fix it. I am going to ask Randy to go check the animals at Mark's studio before he sends them to me again. Hopefully this will prevent a repeat of this crap. I've seen his work, he CAN do good work if he wants to do it.

Oh man that is horrid... I cant believe he would even let it out of his shop.. Also when you talk to him next time tell him to paint the dang thing, It appears he did NO finishing work whatso ever.. The eyes, nose pads, ears etc have NO PAINT!! and those ears need to be redone. They werent split to the edge.. see how its kinda wavy? It shouldnt be that way. The fox's right eye needs to be tucked in more, and epoxy would do wonders...as well as aligned properly, the fur doesnt even match up.. As for the holes he should have sewn those up. Ive mounted a raccoon that had tons of fleshing holes, and when it was done you couldnt find a hole to save your life.. And tell him to sew the tail back on too. I cant believe he used staples. The whiskers either werent fleshed out completely or he didn't position them properly, either way they are horrible...
Also around the holes, tell him to clean the glue out of the fur... It looks like the glue is stuck in the fur around that big hole..
I hope you didnt pay alot for this mount? And I sure wouldnt send anything else to him.. Man that is just plain horrible.... How long has this taxidermist been doing mammals??