Press release: Coeur D'Alene Press

By BILL BULEY/Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE - The bobcat looks alive.

You know it's not, but it's there in Sean West's shop, perfectly still, looking around from its perch, eyes wide open.

The Coeur d'Alene man admires his work that just earned him three awards at the Idaho Taxidermist Association's 11th annual Convention and Competition June 3-5 at the Red Lion Inn in Lewiston: First place, life-size bobcat; "Best of Category" life-size bobcat; and highest scoring in "Taxidermist Challenge."

The show itself can be overwhelming with all the talent there.

"It's a humbling experience as a taxidermist to go to one of these," West said. "You walk in there, you're all proud, you're excited, you think you've got a blue ribbon, you walk through there and you see some of the amazing work that these guys do, and the air is just let out of your sails."

But this time, West sailed to the front.

The owner of Captured Expressions Taxidermy has been in the field just six years, and has already racked up awards and clients across the country.

Customers include Jeremy Affeldt, a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants; Brian Fuentes, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, Jim Burnworth, producer and host of the Outdoor Channel show "Western Extreme," Ray Bunny, host of the Outdoor Channel show "Adventures Abroad," and Keith Mark, host of the Outdoor Channel show "McMillan River Adventures."

West takes pride in doing his best, a reason, he says, that he has accumulated a solid client base.

"They come to me because of the standards I hold, and they know their trophies are safe with me," he said. "It all stems from having high quality work."

He recalled that when he first got started, he wasn't happy with the quality of his work. But by attending competitions and "finding out who the best in the world is and taking classes from them," he quickly improved.

The bobcat that claimed honors early this month was the result of West's studying anatomy, reviewing skeletal articulation, muscle attachment points and hair patterns and closing his shop for two weeks to focus on a single project.

"This is what we ended up with," West said.

He loves to stay sharp for the competitions.

"It's what motivates us to do better," the 42-year-old said. "The industry changes so much, you really need to compete every other year in order to understand what's going on."

He noted that the judge gave him a 94 out of 100 for the bobcat.

"The good news is the things that he picked out, I'm going to fix and take it to the nationals next year in South Dakota," he said. "And then, it will retire."

West was an RV mechanic before deciding he needed a new career. The longtime hunter said he has developed great appreciation for wildlife and said taxidermy was something he wanted to do to honor the animals he or others wanted to keep as trophies.

"Once I hit the mid- to late-30s, my body didn't want to work as hard as it used to work. The funny thing is, I put in more hours now and work harder than I did then," he said with a laugh. "It has been a very long process for me the last six years, but now it's satisfaction, it's pure enjoyment."

Taxidermy, he says, is an art form. Consider you can pay hundreds of dollars for a reprint of a painting or picture. What a taxidermist creates won't be repeated. Ever. One and done.

"You can never get another one of these," he said. "This is it. This is a one-of-a-kind piece of art, and you get to hang it in your house and appreciate it."

His shop shows off much of his talent. There's a massive moose he's working on in the center of the room. Numerous deer trophies are on the wall. A fox is posted up high on a wall, while a wolverine, claws and fangs bared, stands in a corner. There's a fish, a turkey and bee hives on branches, too, throughout the spacious shop.

Numerous plaques and ribbons on the wall over the doorway are evidence of the awards he's received.

"I still have room to grow. I will continue to compete," he said. "I will continue to go to seminars and I will continue to listen to the experts."

He is a believer in motivation and repeats a quote by William A. Foster, a United States Marine who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War II during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945:

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intentions, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives."

To succeed as a taxidermist, West said, you must have perseverance and always be looking to learn more and understand the anatomy of the animals you're working on.

"You have to have the drive and motivation. You can't quit. You've got to stick with it. You can't get complacent," he said.

West said his industry changes fast, with new developments and techniques continually arising.

Where once a plastic jaw set was standard, now the use of real jaw sets and resculpting the gum lines is the norm. It used to be most people were happy if the hide and horns pretty much looked OK. No longer. Detail is demanded.

"It's insane how far guys are going now. You've just got to stay on top of it," West said. "Eventually somebody's going to figure out how to make it look like one of these is breathing."

Yes, a guy name Sean West.

Press release: Coeur D'Alene Press

A Coeur d'Alene taxidermist has donated his services to help educate Washington and Idaho hunters about the differences between black bears - legal to hunt in both states - and grizzly bears.

Sean West of Captured Expressions Taxidermy, who has won multiple awards for his taxidermy work, created a full-body black bear mount to be used in a new mobile bear education display because it was "the right thing to do."

"Knowing more about bears is important to anyone who lives in bear country," West said. "It's especially important to hunters and it's not always as easy as it seems. The whole purpose of the bear education trailer is to teach people more about bears so that they can minimize conflicts."

"I love wildlife and I care about people so it seemed like a pretty simple decision to me," West said.

Wildlife managers involved with bear-related issues in Idaho and Washington say West's donation will have a big impact.

"Every grizzly bear killed by a human in Washington in the last 20 years has been killed by someone with a rifle who said they thought it was a black bear," said Doug Zimmer of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Teaching people the difference - even reminding them that we have grizzly bears in Washington and across into North Idaho - is a vital part of helping them avoid problems and helping us recover grizzly bears and return them to state control."

Grizzly bears are federally-protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Zimmer says West's contribution of dozens of hours of highly-skilled artistic labor to make a life-like full-body mount for the mobile display will go a long way toward those goals.

"Even the people who do see bears in Washington and Idaho seldom have the luxury of being able to study the body shape, pelt color, claw shape and other species identification points," Zimmer said. "Sean did a magnificent job of mounting this bear so that we can display and emphasize those points. He even posed the bear with one paw raised so we can easily show the claw and pad shape - both key identification points."

"Thousands of people are going to see this bear over the years," Zimmer said. "We hope they're going to come away with a better understanding and appreciation of bears, thanks in good part to Sean's work. It's a beautiful mount. He did a great job and we're very grateful."

The bear was about 18 years old and weighed around 500 pounds, West said.

The donated mount will travel the Washington-North Idaho area as part of the mobile bear education display developed as a cooperative project of the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Inter-agency Grizzly Bear Committee, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Missoula-based Center for Wildlife Information.

Cabela's and CounterAssault Bear Deterrent Spray also contributed to the development and stocking of the trailer.

The black bear was donated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Wildlife agents had to kill the bear, which had been fed by well-meaning but misguided local people, leading it to break into residences in southwestern Washington.

"Part of the lesson we'll be teaching is what happens when people feed bears or don't store pet food, garbage and other bear attractants properly," Zimmer said. "That's why this big beautiful bear is an educational mount and not out in the woods being a bear. At least, through Sean's work, we'll be able to help people how to avoid outcomes like that."