Additional guidance notes for taxidermists and their customers
You should read these guidance notes together with the general guidance notes for importers and
exporters (GN1), and the general guidance notes for commercial use within the European Union (GN2), where appropriate.
These notes are only for guidance and are not a full statement of the law. If you need points of law to be explained, you should get independent legal advice.
This page is available as a downloadable document here 
- Introduction
- Covering yourself and your stock
- General points
- Permanently marking taxidermy specimens
- Gifts
- Requirements for customers and owners of taxidermy specimens
- Requirements of other legislation
- List of Approved Inspectors
Introduction
To use Annex A specimens commercially you must have been issued with a certificate. These are known as Article 10 certificates of which there are two types, although the layout is the same. Specimen-specific certificates (SSCs) are valid for all commercial uses, and transaction certificates (TCSs) which cover a single sale. Please see GN2 for more details.
Covering yourself and your stock
If you are questioned about the origin of your stock, you will be responsible for proving that you obtained the specimens legally. So, it is very important that you keep accurate records relating to its origin. It is essential that you apply for a certificate as soon as the specimen comes into your possession and prior to mounting. You also need to be aware that if you start work on a specimen before an Article 10 certificate has been issued you may be destroying the evidence that would otherwise show that you obtained the specimen legally. In the case of rarer species an inspection of the specimen will form part of the application process for an Article 10 certificate. Unless legal acquisition can be shown it is likely that an Article 10 application will be refused.
You also need an appropriate certificate to keep items for sale as well as for selling them. All specimens should be marked with a unique number from your logbook. This will be on all certificates.
To make sure that all your stock, including stored items that are not for immediate sale or treatment, is covered by an appropriate certificate, you should do one of the following.
- If you are able to mark your specimen with a microchip you may apply for specimenspecific certificate for the individual specimen. This will cover all future transactions including the sale, offering for sale, transporting for sale and keeping for sale.
- If you are not able to, or do not want to, mark your specimen with a microchip you may apply for a transaction certificate. The certificate must still have a logbook number and will allow you to keep specimens (for example, in the freezer before you are ready to prepare them), but will be valid for one sale only. Each transaction after that will need a new certificate.
- If you hold a transaction certificate but then mark your specimen with a microchip. You may type the chip number on the certificate, then return it to us. When we receive the certificate, we will issue you with a specimenspecific certificate with the chip number on it. At the moment, we do not charge application fees for certificates, but it is likely that this will change. However, we will not charge for a specimenspecific certificate if we have already issued you with a transaction certificate for the same specimen.
General points
If you are applying for a certificate to sell dead animals, you should send us a copy of the logbook page with your application. You must provide reliable documentary or other evidence to confirm that these specimens were bred in captivity or legally removed from the wild. Each specimen held in store should be marked with a uniquely-numbered tag or label. The details of these must match those in your logbook.
The Annex to this note shows the recommended format for these records. If you do not send us this information, we will not be able to process your application. Also, we will only issue the certificate to cover goods which you have, or will shortly have, at the time you apply. We will not issue these certificates until you have the specimens.
It is also our current policy that if you are a taxidermist preparing a specimen for a client you do not require an Article 10 for this specimen. This is because you are providing a service to the client and not using the specimen commercially yourself. If your client wishes to sell the specimen they will require an Article 10 and you should advise them to contact us for advice.
In addition, for certain registered people or organisations we may issue semi-complete (re-)export certificates and permits for specimens of species listed on Annex B – C. More details of this type of licence are again given in GN2, but essentially these are part completed carbonated documents part of which is left blank for you to fill in prior to the (re)export.
Permanently marking taxidermy specimens
We have agreed with the Guild of Taxidermists, that taxidermy specimens can be permanently marked with a microchip transponder encased in resin (or any other similar material) in the head cavity of a specimen. The Guild of Taxidermists will be able to give you technical advice on how to do this. Under EC CITES Regulations, microchips must be ‘unalterable’ and meet ISO Standards 11784: 1996 (E) and 11785: 1996 (E). Specimens fitted with microchips in this way can be issued with specimen-specific certificates. Those not fitted with microchips will be issued with transaction certificates. The advantage of specimen-specific certificates is that they travel with the specimen, and as long as the description does not change, they stay valid for all subsequent commercial uses, even if the specimen is moved to another EU country.
Gifts
There are currently no controls on keeping Annex A specimens for noncommercial purposes, so you do not need a certificate if you plan to give these specimens away. However, if the person receiving the specimens plans to use them for commercial purposes, he or she should apply for a certificate for that purpose. Anyone who receives a specimen as a gift should ask the person who gave it to them for written details of its origin, as well as confirming that the item was a gift. We will need this information if the new owner applies for a certificate.
Requirements for customers and owners of taxidermy specimens
If you want to buy a taxidermy specimen listed in Annex A of the regulations, you should make sure that the taxidermist has the appropriate Article 10 exemption certificate that allows them to sell the specimen. The taxidermist may have a yellow specimen-specific certificate which they should give to you at the time you buy the specimen. You should keep this certificate as proof that you bought the specimen legally and for passing on if you sell the specimen. If the taxidermist does not have a specimen-specific certificate, they should still have a transaction certificate. You should ask for a photocopy of this certificate or make sure that the taxidermist’s label includes the licence number (this will make it easier for you to get another certificate if you sell the specimen). Certificates will be clearly worded to show whether they are transaction or specimen-specific.
Items, for example display cases that have more than one Annex A species will need separate certificates to cover each species in the display.
If you have a dead specimen that you wish to sell, for example a road kill, and you give it to a taxidermist to treat and mount in a display, then you will require an Article 10 certificate for this sale. But if you wish to display it for personal non-commercial reasons, for example in your own home then no certificate is required. But you should keep documentary evidence of the origin of the specimen, including the taxidermist who treated it.
There may be old taxidermy specimens that do not have a current Article 10 certificate because they have not been in commercial trade since the EC Regulations came into force in 1997. If you own such a specimen and want to sell it, you must still apply for an Article 10 certificate and show that you bought the specimen legally. To support your application you may wish to have the specimen inspected by the Guild of Taxidermists. We cannot guarantee that any application will be successful, but we will consider the report within the context of the overall application, which can help to identify whether the specimen was obtained legally.
A list of taxidermy inspectors, approved by the Guild, and who work independently from us, is attached to these guidance notes and available here, together with the approved inspection report. Taxidermists may charge for this inspection (they are acting on your behalf, not ours).
Requirements of other legislation
If you are granted a certificate under Council Regulation 338/97 and Commission Regulation 865/2006, you may need to get a licence under other legislation. For example, you will still need a licence under sections 16 (4)a and 16 (5) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (WCA) to sell birds listed on part I of schedule 2, part II or part III of Schedule 3, or to sell animals or plants listed in schedules 5 and 8 of the Act.
From a taxidermists point of view the most common, but not the only species used and currently listed on both Annex A of the EC CITES Regulations and Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act are the Common Otter (Lutra lutra) and the Scottish Wildcat (Felis silvestris). Both these species will require two licenses before any specimen can be legally sold.
Applicants for Article 10 Certificates for them should have obtained a sales license from the RDS National Wildlife Management Team under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, OR THE Scottish or Welsh equivalent before they apply for a CITES Article 10 certificate.
List of inspectors approved by the Guild of Taxidermists
A List of inspectors approved by the Guild of Taxidermists is available here
Page last modified:08 January 2008
Page published:31 January 2008