Taxidermist Review "Hunters Taxidermy, St. Augustine, Fl.

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If I remember the quote correctly...."The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the excitement of a cheap price!" I did not get a cheap price but I did end up with the bitterness!

This is something I have been wanting to post for a long time in hopes that it might save someone else the misfortune and loss that I and my Niece experienced with an animal I recently took to a Taxidermist here in N.E. Florida.

The name of the Taxidermy company was Hunters Taxidermy in St. Augustine, Florida, and is owned by Pat and Elizabeth Hunter. I originally found them when I needed some trophies scored for the SCI record book and got their name off the SCI web site. They were members of the Florida State Taxidermy Association and appeared to be reputable. After meeting them, if I had a reservation it was their working out of their home and actually doing the work in their kitchen....a little unusual. I later found out that they were actually board members for the Florida State Taxidermy Association. They had numerous displays of trophies and ribbons won in competition.

I had taken my niece Kristina hog hunting. It was the first time she had ever shot a gun or hunted and she took a really nice Boar that I talked her into getting mounted. You can read the story here....Two Boars for Kristina.

In brief, On July 07,2007 I engaged Hunters Taxidermy to mount Kristina's trophy Boar. I described exactly what I wanted in great detail. The agreed upon Time frame was 6-8 months an the price was $525.

The following is what Hunter's Promised and what I actually got!

Promised:                                                                   Received:
shoulder mount with our cape                                     cape from another animal, different color!
6-8month delivery                                                       1yr and 8months delivery
cost-$525                                                                     same
offset shoulder, right head turn manikin                      no offset, slight right turn
blended paint on gums                                                 hard line from pink to black

In other words; our trophy was lost! I paid for a mount that is not our hog and not even the same color, with a docked ear, Our hog was a boar with full ears. They actually lied and swore that the mount was in fact our hog when the pictures are clear proof that our hog was brown. See their explanation for the color change in the email......you'll love this one!

Their business practices are the worst I have ever experienced. They lied, misrepresented, took more than twice as long as promised and insulted me to boot! Unbelievable! Their last email was down right nasty! After I picked up the mount and got home and looked at the kill photo I immediately called them and they would not answer the phone and never returned the call.

There was really not to much I could do once I had paid for the mount. It had taken so long I was not exactly sure what the hog looked like until I got home and looked at the photo's. I contacted the Better Business Bureau, Fl. Dept. of Consumer Services, Fl. St. Taxidermy Assoc.  and  the credit card company. It was all a waste of time. The credit card company claimed they could only get the balance back and not the deposit as it had been to long and I  would have to return the mount! How about that! I would have been out a trophy that could not be replaced, have no mount and out my deposit. I decided to just keep the mount and maybe sell it on ebay. If i returned it, Hunters keeps my deposit and sells the mount for full price!

On top of this, they used the mount in a competition, which is the real reason for the delay in the end. I did not find out it was complete until just a few days after the competition! They did not ask for my consent to transport it somewhere and use it. They knew they had exceeded their delivery date by more than twice and had the nerve to further delay by taking it to the competition!

I spoke to both Trina Pritchard, President of the Florida State Taxidermy Association and Garry Miller the VP. Ms. Pritchard had me forward all my correspondence and said she would look into it and see what she could do  and that was the end of that. I never got any further response from the Association to  which this Taxidermist is a board member. That was a little disappointing given the obvious misrepresentation and deceitful business practices by one of their members. Apparently, the Associations condones this kind of behavior among its members.


I have posted some pictures so you can see what Kristina's hog looked like and what Hunter's tried to pass off as our hog. Don't laugh this is a true story! They are at the bottom of the post!


If you are board with nothing to do I have included most of the actual email communications with Elizabeth Hunter, describing what we wanted, our agreement, her responses, etc.


Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 7:35 PM Subject: HOG HEAD
Elizabeth:

hog head; give me a offset shoulder, slight right hand head turn. also, we need to find a manikin other then the one's in your photo gallery. i would call them just a head mount and i want a shoulder mt. they have way to little shoulder showing. i want most of the shoulders left showing. i buy my manikins from dan chase. his wh352 looks good as far as the amount of shoulder. let me know if you have a question. i should probably see the manikin you want to use. eyes; the black hog in your gallery has very red looking eyes. i would rather have a more natural looking dark pupil and slightly lighter surround. if possible please email a pic of the eye you plan to use. one small point. a couple of the mounts in the gallery have a nose with an arched bridge or its necked down and makes his nose look a little droopy. i would like to see a straighter line on top with a nose a little more square to the top line. my niece thought she wanted a closed mouth but i dont' see many in my catalogs. i would prefer an open like you did on your competition mouth on the wall. his cutters looked very realistic.

Larry

Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 9:16 PM Subject: RE: HOG HEAD 

Larry-
To some extent I do agree that a closed mouth would be more appropriate for a young lady, but I will wait to hear from you on her decision. I normally use McKenzie’s for all of my forms. I do realize how special this hog is for your niece and it will be treated with the utmost respect. I normally use all competition quality products on all of my mounts, but if you want the lesser exp. eyes, that is your choice. Anyhow, let me know what she decides and we will go from there.
Liz

Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 4:34 PM Subject: RE: HOG HEAD

Larry-
That is fine, we will go with open mouth with the hog and I will blend the mouth.. For comp it needs to be more defined, it took me 12 hours to paint that mouth. I much rather blend it!!!
Liz



From: larrysdd

To: ELIZABETH HUNTER
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 3:59 PM Subject: hog head

Elizabeth,Pat,
Glad to hear everything is finally ready, i didn't know you were planning to enter the head in a competition. i would rather had picked it up had i known it was ready. when i didn't return a call in a couple of weeks you should have called. i'm a busy person and we've been waiting so long i don't even think about the mount anymore.

Please email me a couple of pictures of the completed mount so i can email them to kristina along with an itemized bill with the remaining balance for ea. item. i'll call to arrange to pick everything up one night this week.
Larry Stephens



From: taxidermist

To: 'larrysdd'
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 1:55 PM Subject: RE: hog head

Larry-
Attached you will find an invoice for all of your items, including the total due, deposit, 10% discount and final amount due. Please let us know when you will be coming out to pick everything up. Sorry, but we do not have photos uploaded on the computer as of yet. I am sorry that this took so long, but you were aware of the neck surgery I was going in for shortly after you dropped everything off. Also we told you that when we send items off to the tannery that it is out of our hands and that alone could take anywhere from 6-8 months. Unfortunately, I had some severe health and heart problems and things ended up taking longer than expected. Our policy also states that if mounts are not picked up within 30 days of completion and notice they do become our property to do with what we please. Since you were notified several months ago and did not come to pick them up this would apply to your mounts. It is not our responsibility to keep calling and harassing our customers to pick their items up. However, if you will pick your mounts up within the next 5 days we will make an exception. We have also given you a 10% discount for everything you brought in and are unable to discount this anymore. As far as using the hog mount in competition, it costs us money to enter pieces and insure them for transport and theft during competition. We entered it to give you/ Kristina a better mount with ribbons behind it. Please let us know when you will be out to pick everything up.

Pat and Liz




From: larrysdd
To: taxidermist
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 1:10 PM Subject: Re: hog head

PAT, LIZ.
I immediately called to speak to you after reading your email but got your machine so i left a message.

let me correct you on a couple of things.

first, i have called and left numerous messages and emails over the year and eight months i have been waiting, inquiring when i can pick up everything. all i got was excuses. i never received any up date on the status unless i inquired. somewhere around august of 08, i again phoned to inquire when things would be completed and pat stated everything was almost done and would be ready the following week. that deadline came and went also. when pat returned my call in november he never stated that anything was completed! in that message or any other. he only left a message to return his call. so please don't tell me i was notified and never showed. i have been begging for my mounts. it is your obligation to notify me when my mounts are ready. i am sorry about your health but that is out of my control and you should have kept me abreast of the situation and asked if an extended deadline was acceptable. the last i heard back on dec. 10, 07, liz indicated by email that she was over her neck surgery and the mounts would be done "no later than the beginning of march, 07". you breached the time frame in our verbal contract by approximately a year without even so much as asking. then to insult me and state "its not your responsibility to keep calling and harassing" as if you tried many times to contact me. this disturbs me beyond description. true, i returned pats november call and got your machine and left a message stating i would call again when i got back in town and i neglected to get to that for a time. it has been so long, the matter hardly comes to mind. you obviously knew how anxious we were to get the mounts back. why didn't you call and just say they are complete. the circumstances lead me to believe you didn't make a follow up call in order to delay so you could enter the head in the taxidermy competition you stated you just returned from.

i never authorized you to take the head anywhere! what if something happened to it? how would i explain that to my niece. that head is irreplaceable. the insurance you claim you had for it would be useless.

second, i received nothing in writing or verbally as to any of your business policies. all i recall receiving was a small receipt for the deposit. after the extreme delay, i am further insulted by the threat you made that my mounts are your property at this point. again, i received no indication that the mounts were complete, not by phone, email or in writing. therefore, no exception to your policy on my behalf is required as i was not informed items were ready or made aware of this so called policy.

i will however make arrangements to be at your residence this afternoon to conclude our business.
larry stephens



From: larrysdd

To: ELIZABETH HUNTER
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 3:04 PM Subject: HOG MOUNT

PAT, LIZ,
I wanted to show you the pictures of Kristina's hog so you might explain how the color is so different and the left ear is docked on the mount you prepared.


in the hanging picture, (75) taken from the back, you can clearly see both ears are full and symmetrical, unlike the mount you represented as ours. see pic.'s 13 & 14 of the ears of your mount, they clearly do not match. also i included a harvest picture on the ground (059) that clearly shows the left ear is full and un cut. no question about it. also, in the hanging picture you can see this is a boar that is un-cut on the back end. also, the cape you used has a split in the docked ear (08). the harvest pictures clearly show our hog had no split ear.


the cape you used is from a hog that has been barred and his ear marked. i know you guys are big hog hunters and know just what i'm talking about. when i arrived to pick up the mount and mentioned it to pat he admitted the left ear appeared to be cut and he hadn't noticed it before. the color difference, he explained, was due to cleaning him up with a pressure washer. if you have any, so called cleaned up pictures of the cape i would very much like to see them.


now we get to the color. the pictures clearly show our hog was a light to medium brown hog, not black! you can see in the pictures everything is shinny. we killed this hog in the rain, in a grass pasture and he was very clean. when i hung him i thoroughly washed him with a spray nozzle and there was no dirt on him to obscure his color. if you notice the underside of our hog (70) in the picture there is no black hair on the jowls and under mouth area, compare that to your mount, pic. (14)


additionally, i have attached emails of the requested mounting details. in the july 12, 07 email, liz stated she could provide an offset shoulder form. in the 7/16/07 email, i specifically requested liz to do an offset shoulder, right and blend the mouth color at the lips. i received a standard, square shoulder, right with a hard line transition of the lips. liz specifically stated in her return email that blending was easier than the competition mount for her and that was what she would do, as instructed.


also, in my july 16, 2007 email, i stated i wanted the mouth to be painted exactly like the mouth on the spotted hog on your web site (picture attached) his mouth is much more white and with a blended gum line. i got a pink mouth with no blended gum line! (photo attached for comparison). again, a drastic difference from what i requested. the pink gum line does not have a realistic appearance and is why i requested to match the mouth of the spotted hog photo. neither of the two hog photo's from your web site, the spotted hog and the competition mount with the vegetation, have bright pink mouths. compare this to the picture of the mount i received!!!

when i arrived to pick up the mount i specifically, asked pat "are you sure this is my cape?" his response was "oh yea!" as it has been a year and eight months his reassurance gave just enough doubt to cause me to question my memory and i went ahead and accepted the mount until i could investigate further. as stated, upon looking at the harvest photo's, it is quite clear that the mount you presented is not Kristina's trophy. please compare picture 18 of your mount with the harvest picture 73 and explain the color difference for me!


this was a young women's first ever!!!!!! hunting trip, first ever, harvest, never even shoot at an animal before, never shot a gun before that weekend, made a perfect shot! now her trophy of a life time is lost forever. this is irreplaceable as you know. i do not even know how to break the news to her.


this revelation coupled with the insulting email i received from you wednesday leaves me completely disappointed in the services you provided and the trust i instilled in you regarding Kristina's trophy. in your july 13,07 email you wrote " i do realize how special this hog is for your niece and it will be treated with the utmost respect". the end result speaks to the contrary i am afraid and no special care or effort was taken to provide the service you promised. you did not even bother to look back at your notes and correspondence! i am not saying the mount you provided is poor, its just not what i specifically asked for and you agreed to provide and most importantly, is not our animal. i may as well have bought one off ebay for half price. we paid a lot of money for this mount, never questioned your fee. christina is a young girl with a very limited income. i offered to pay for half just so she could possible afford it.

please review the emails and pictures and provide me with an explanation of what happened to christina's trophy and what suggestions you have to rectify this situation, as none are obvious to me.


pictures 2, 3, 8,11,13,14,18 are of your mount, all others are of the actual harvested animal.
larry stephens




From: larrysdd
To: TRINA PRITCHARD, FLORIDA STATE TAXIDERMY ASSOCIATION, PRESIDENT
Cc: GARRY MILLER , VP
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 4:25 PM Subject: Fw: hog head

trina & garry,
there are a number of these emails but i'll keep it as few as possible.


as i related, the trophy is lost at this point and i see no remedy for this situation. i have no interest in speak to hunter's taxidermy at this point. i was treated so poorly i don't see that i could have a civil conversation with them. however, i do feel you should be aware of the situation as this person is on your board and representing the association. i do not know of any other reports of similar problems from hunter's but i find it hard to believe that this is an isolated occurrence. if it was just a time issue or just the wrong manikin issue or the wrong mouth painting,.... maybe, but coupled with the outright misrepresentation that this was our animal!! i find it hard to believe that this is not typical.


if you have any questions please do contact me.


thanks, larry stephens


The first 3 pictures are of Kristina's hog (The Brown hog on the left!)                       

The following pictures are of the finished mount Hunter's Taxidermy reprensented as our hog!

(Note the color difference!)

Well, that was pretty much the whole sad story. As it has been a few years now my anger has wained a little but as I re-read the emails I can feel it returning.

Take my advise and do your homework before you select a taxidermist for your next trophy.

Good Luck,

Larry S.


P.S.
Here is a link to another negative report on Hunters taxidermy that I ran across. http://jmar-trophy-hunting.blogspot.com/2011/08/hunters-taxidermy-st-augustine-florida.html . Have a look at this Guy's
experience with Hunters, it is eerily similiar to my experience, right down to the delay due to illness.
Larry