Taxidermy Made Simple: Taxidermy training offered on DVD

Richard Golany, owner of Woodland Taxidermy north of Sunset House, has created a series of DVDs for novice and experienced hunters to help them handle and cape their trophy game animal for their taxidermist

Mac Olsen
South Peace News

Every novice and experienced hunter, at one time or another, wishes to tell the story of how they bagged the big game or other trophy animal. “The trophy is down, but now what do I do?” they ask What they may not have dealt with is the task of processing the animal for taxidermy service or they might have mishandled and/or damaged it during transport. Moreover, taxidermy work is expensive and time consuming, with backlogs of a year or more for many service providers. However, Richard Golany, owner of Woodland Taxidermy 16 km of north Sunset House on Highway 747, has created ‘Taxidermy Made Simple’, an educational DVD Series. It trains hunters and sportsmen on the correct methods to handle a trophy game animal once he or she has taken it down in the field and prepare the animal for taxidermy purposes. “This educational training allows them to spend more time hunting and less time skinning while creating a prime trophy specimen they may now take to their taxidermist with confidence,” says Golany. “Primarily, when hunters take down an animal, they may want or need to process it to have taxidermy work done. But I’ve discovered over the years that more than 90 per cent of the game animals that came into the shop were poorly handled in the field. If you want a prime mount, then we must start with a prime specimen.” Golany also says, while spending an extra 15 minutes to re-skin the animal doesn’t sound too bad, if he has 100 game head to do every year, this is 1,500 minutes which must be paid for by either the taxidermist in lost wages or by the customer in increased service fees. He has been in the taxidermy business on and off for 25 years, creating head and body mounts. He processes big game such as bear, elk, moose and deer, as well as birds and fish. With ‘Taxidermy Made Simple’ as an educational tool, novice and experienced hunters could learn how to process their game while in the field, which provides a better quality specimen. “My purpose is to educate hunters, young and old, to be confident in handling their game successfully in the field. Knowing they’re going to have their animals mounted, it doesn’t matter if they bring it to me or anybody else. The methodologies that I teach are standards in the industry, so they can be very confident that if they follow our training program, they will have a top quality specimen to hand over to the taxidermist.” One DVD explains how to process one of the most common big game animals, the whitetail deer. This includes how to lay the animal on the ground, where and how to insert the knife and make the cuts to prepare the deer for a full shoulder head mount. Golany shows how to skin the animal and remove the head from the body, as well as how to work around the ears, eyes, nose and lips. He also demonstrates how to remove the antlers from the skull, how to create an antler plate and how to salt and preserve the skin to prepare it for freezing or taking it to the taxidermist immediately. There are five DVDs in the series now: * Volume 1: How to Cape Your Whitetail Deer * Volume 2: How to Cape & Field Prep your Trophy “Bull Moose” * Volume 3: North American Bear, for “RUG” taxidermy purposes * Volume 4: Do It Yourself European Mounting * Volume 5: Do it Yourself Skull Whitening. The first three provide information about field handling techniques in preparation for taxidermy services, while the others are for novice or experienced do-it-your-selfers. Each DVD has a pocket guide, a written reference hunters can place in their backpacks to use in the field. Golany plans to create more instructional DVDs for topics such as wild turkey field preparation and how to mount game elk and mule deer. Several outfitters and two training schools in southern Alberta have purchased some of his DVDs. He says it is important to teach young children the skills of processing an animal. “My purpose is to try to get this education out to ‘new hunters’ such as youngsters – and any new groups of hunters that are coming out – through the hunter training programs, so they know. Right now, nobody is really teaching this aspect of proper game handling techniques and it’s a big part of hunting and conservation.” Each DVD can be purchased for $19.95 or as a set for $89.95. They are available online at www.taxidermymadesimple.com and at sporting goods stores in the Peace River region and throughout Alberta. For more information, including becoming a dealer, please call 1-888-524-5245 or e-mail Golany at sales@taxid ermymadesimple.com.

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