Suing the canadian food inspection agency over African trophies

JHC-II

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I've just had a client return from Africa. I was there when the crate came off the bird watched customs do there bit. Guess what no CFIA agent present, yet the finished European trophies are to be dissenfected and the tanned hides for inspection. This will cost my client over another $1500 of unnecessary expenses when the smoke settles. SCI is touting there doing what they can. I call BS on this. If there are any other folks out there that have valid gripes about this pipe up as it seems the only way this is going to get sorted out is through a valid law suit. Cheers
 
Tanned hides should not require secondary treatment but boiled heads may. I'm confused what you would sue over. The regulations are ridiculous but........
 
Boiled heads and then further sealed, mounted on plaques, accompanied by vet certificates. Secondary inspection of tanned hides. Regardless there is a handling charge, pick up fee, crate disposal fee, storage and new handling fee. Not a lot of my clients have the budget or resources some people have. This little law was just slipped in with little to no forewarning to prospective hunters and to only a few select taxidermists, Fully understand and agree ship sand dip should go through a secondary process of dissenfection. However we are now seeing products coming in from other countries that do not require a secondary inspection, being told they require the process. Food inspection agency does not want to do there job as they are just flogging it off to customs, who are just going to say it requires inspection. Unfortunately I have also had a client required to have finished trophies require inspection as the customs officer did not know what she was doing and said it required inspection. Reason being the horns where not attached to the mounts. Of course there not attached the crate size would triple in volume. This was 5 trophies in a custom crate designed for the trophies. When the smoke settled there was nothing that required doing, however he was on the hook for pick up, the approved facility to say they look fine, the loss of the custom crate, re crating costs. Added just a little over $1300 to his bill. It's time for some one to step up to the plate on this one. This BS could truely be the demise of a hunt for the regular working man. Yes hunting in Africa is affordable. But most people I know save for a lot of years for most likely there one and only hunt. No one really seems to be watching the hunters back anymore so if me trying to gather Legitimate info in order to create a class action suit to an entity that really does not want to do there job. So be it
 
I'm still confused what you feel you can launch a class action law suit over.....I agree that their recent interpretation of the law is flawed but you can't just sue the Government because they made a stupid law. The courts would be overflowing. SCI is working diligently on this but if you've ever worked with the Federal Government on anything, it takes time to bring about a change in policy. If more hunters got involved and wrote their MPs and threw their support behind SCI on this change will happen. Sadly I doubt hunters will do that. If you expect change overnight from the Feds...you will go through life disappointed. Fair? No. A fact of life? Yes.

Countdown to this turning into an SCI bashing thread...10, 9, 8, 7....................
 
A wiser move would be to advocate for rule and policy changes at CFIA.

a lawsuit against the government will break you.
 
Well said and understood but at what cost to the hunter? Have I worked with the federal government more than I care to admit. Yes I understand burocracy moves beyond slow. But the advocate groups did not do as much as they could have in my humble opinion. Little bent out of shape at this so yes emotions are high, with both clients and myself. Government entities not doing there job. A select few taxidermy companies basically manipulating and price setting on at times no service what so ever other than to collect your crate. This is going to escalate, it will spiral until yes only the rich and select few will only be able to leave the country to hunt.
 
Imagine our surprise when these rules changed from the time we got back from South Africa to the time our trophies were shipped. It definitely wasn't something we had budgeted for. Emotions I understand.
 
The farming industry in Canada is a multi billion dollar enterprise and it only takes one case of foot and mouth or Africian swine flu to screw it up big time. Plus I would expect that their thinking is if you can afford to go to Africa to hunt you can afford to pay the piper due to their inspections. Since July even trying to get pigs across into the US has become a pain in the butt for us. If we got any of the really bad bugs this would become impossible period.
 
This has zero to do with inspection. I suspect no one thinks that's a bad idea. Trophies from Africa have always required inspection and secondary treatment if a problem was found. That's why we pay expensive dip and pack fees in Africa. The new policy has actually increased the chance of introducing something nasty into Canada and penalizes those that take steps to prevent it. Plus it encourages us to take work away from Canadians. There is less Government inspection under this new policy than there previously was.
 
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But it surprises me that people returning from ebola plagued countries can come right through with barely a blink of an eye.
 
It's all ridiculous, I agree, and I'm not sure where to start on it. I think SCI is likely the best group advocating for us at present on it. I have a skin and several skulls still in Africa myself, they'll come back as finished goods but I'll still likely get hit with the know-nothing tax / inspection.

Magellan I know you don't mean it this way, but for the benefit of anyone reading, they need to chill on ebola, it's almost a non-issue. In a continent of billions, there are maybe 15,000 cases, it's also not airborne and needs bodily fluid transmission. Unless you're handling the sick and dead, you'll be fine, and even if you are, odds are overwhelmingly you'll still be fine. We hear of the handful of nurses and doctors who've contracted it, and not the thousands of volunteers who haven't. The media is doing what they do best on Ebola, sensationalist BS. I'll be in an Ebola area soon enough, and zero concerns, except for some know-nothings at my employer who want me practically quarantined.

Also, here's the Ebola map,


 
This has SFA to do with "regulations". It has everything to do with the CFIA's internal, home-grown (make-work) "policy". Internal. Nothing to do with law.

They know they are immune to challenge. Ritz is clueless. They like it that way.
 
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