sestoppelman
AH ambassador
So this is just pure magic right? After 10 months of waiting for our measly 6 skull and horns, one tanned skin and one gnu tail to get here, I have made an appointment with our wonderful Fish and Wildlife cops near SeaTac airport to clear my little chicken box of parts now (still) residing at Delta Cargo. So off me and the boy go early this morning as its a 4 hour round trip to SeaTac from home. Get there in plenty of time, first to Delta, out of there in 5 minutes with my paperwork and down the road a mile to FWS. The gal I talked to on the phone met us at the door and asked for ID?!!? I told her yeah, I like talked to you on the phone like yesterday, right? No matter, ID. OK, fine. Start filling out the animal form, now two gals both speaking in whispers that my boy with normal hearing could barely hear so guess what that means for me being deaf in one ear and cant hear out of the other?? Not going well. They started asking my boy about the trip and then they come out with. "Wait, you were there too, who was shooting on this trip, both or just one of you?" Not wanting to lie to a Federal agent, I said well we both did, but I only had one, the boy had the rest.. Oh well now that's a problem, so now we will have to have you both fill out this form. OK, no problem. Then going thru the paper work, all that I had. They asked several times, "Where is the ZAPHR?" The who're says I? The ZAPHR again. Beats me says I, you have all the papers sent by email or with the shipment. A huddle ensues between my now not so friendly gals (as it looks like they really have something on me now), and their apparent boss in his office. Upshot is this, no ZAPHR no trophies! Plus they want pictures emailed to them of our animals with us in the pics so they can match the critter pix to the trophy paperwork, I guess! So now with daily fees being added to my box at Delta, I have emailed my outfitter in SA and hope he is not too busy hunting to send this form to FWS and hopefully it will be all they need and can soon clear this for me. What a nightmare! Plus I will have to do the same thing all over again! So fellas I am a slow learner, but this will do it for me. If and I say IF I eventually get my stuff without being arrested for whopping someone upside the head during this stupid process, I am done with self clearing my shipments. They are getting way too nit picky about stuff. I figure this extra scrutiny is all tied in with the extra export of rifles stuff. We have in this administration a very unfriendly bunch towards hunting and guns and they will leave no stone unturned to try to make things painful for us. This is the last time. Next time I turn the whole thing over to the pros and sit home and wait for the phone to ring. I'M DONE!
If for some reason or reasons that I cannot satisfy their demands I plan to tell them to please take possession of the shipment and burn it (if I cant have it) so at least Delta wont keep adding to the fee pile. I will have to pay them regardless when this is done but I don't want to get burned too badly. So if it sounds like a not so great day here, yeah it pretty much sucks!
If for some reason or reasons that I cannot satisfy their demands I plan to tell them to please take possession of the shipment and burn it (if I cant have it) so at least Delta wont keep adding to the fee pile. I will have to pay them regardless when this is done but I don't want to get burned too badly. So if it sounds like a not so great day here, yeah it pretty much sucks!