All,
Stephanie, who did the demo at the Summer Rendezvous-sent out a letter to all Taxidermists and Fur Buyers, so if you fall into those categories, check your junk mail.
Here's the BLUF-Bottom Line Up Front: For those selling or otherwise handing their bobcats over to fur buyers on carcass, the hunter/trapper will be able to take the carcass (or likely skinned with skull still in) to get sealed WITHOUT turning in the jaw immediately. This greatly reduces one of the friction areas. Here's how it works, and also puts a bit of record keeping/inventory on us fur buyers:
Little Timmy or Susie gets a cat and is selling it to me a fur buyer or having it taxidermied by Mike the taxidermist. The trapper takes the carcass in to et sealed just like in years' past. The caveat is that the office/biologist etc will have the trapper sign a form acknowledging they will bring the jaw back in before the end of season deadline. Carcass gets sealed, it comes to me and I process/put up the sealed hide.
Now the onus is on both the trapper and me. Me to ensure I tag and preserve the jaw. The trapper to remember to come back, pick the jaw up and turn it in.
IMPORTANT! If trappers don't do this last part, WDFW will likely remove this for everyone, so don't be the one who pees in the pool. Plus, not turning in the jaw can lead to a ticket as well.
While many don't like the jaw turn in, again that ship sailed months ago. We've put the squeeze on WDFW and they've made (in my opinion) concessions that other states don't and without we could be really miserable.
I suggest that when you call to make an appt to get your carcass or carcasses tagged, you let them know beforehand so you don't end up showing up and talking to the one person who missed the memo.
Here's the language from the letter, which I will forward to the Board for distribution via WSTA email:
"...For taxidermy and fur buyer purposes only, we are going to allow hunters and trappers to get their pelt sealed without removing the jaw before submitting the bobcat to the taxidermist/fur buyer, as long as they sign a written statement guaranteeing that they will submit the jaw to the department by the April 20 deadline after the taxidermist/fur buyer has removed it. Any bobcat harvested during the 2024-2025 season or after that still has its jaw intact after the April 20 deadline may result in a citation to the hunter/trapper. Therefore, we recommend removing the jaw while the hunter or trapper is present rather than scheduling for them to return at a later date. However, we understand that you are busy and may need to assist the hunter/trapper at another time. Regardless, we ask that you please make the jaw removal a priority so that the hunter/trapper may submit it before the deadline. We appreciate your cooperation with this request."
When a trapper signs their note, gets their carcass sealed, and shows up on my doorstep I'm going to give them a receipt with their CITES tag number on it. I'll take the jaw, salt/borax it and add a tag with the CITES tag number on it and store it. The key will be remembering a couple months down the road that Timmy/Susie needs to get their jaws from me to turn in. I handle lots of cats so I'll work out the recordkeeping/inventory control as we get closer to the season.
