The federal government is taking the cowardly way out with its decision not to proceed with an exporting charge against taxidermist Chuck Buchanan, says Buchanan.

Buchanan told the Star this week he wanted nothing more than to go to court and face the officers who showed up at his home and place of business with search warrants last fall while he was on holidays.

Last December, shortly after his first court appearance on allegations of improper export procedures, Buchanan and family went public in the Star with their frustration over how authorities handled the matter.

For decades working as a taxidermist, there's never been a problem, he insisted. He said anytime there were questions about permits, either by wildlife officials or himself, a simple phone call was all that was ever needed to clear up matters.

Instead, federal wildlife officers, accompanied by Yukon conservation and RCMP officers, conducted simultaneous raids on his Caribou Crossing Trading Post, near Carcross, and his son's Northfork Taxidermy business on the Mayo Road.

'I think they were thinking they were going bust this big international ring or something,' Marilyn Buchanan said in an interview Tuesday. She spoke shortly after overseeing the feeding 650 people for lunch at the Carcross-area business owned by herself and her husband.

The Buchanans are frustrated, and are now planning to bring their case to a higher level, politically, if not in a civil court.

There was never a case to be had, there was never any infraction of improper export permits, and there was never any need to conduct simultaneous raids on his business and his son's taxidermy business, Chuck maintained this week.

He said instead of acknowledging there was nothing illegal going on, instead of folding the tent after its representatives conducted their searches, the federal government had to somehow try and justify its actions.

And what they charged him with, Buchanan emphasized, was bogus.

Buchanan said the entire affair spearheaded by the federal government was misguided and nonsensical.

Yet the damage to reputations had already been done, he said.

'If this is supposed to make me happy, they are wrong,' Buchanan said of the decision to drop the charge.

He said he wanted his day in court, and an opportunity to have the officers try to justify their actions.

'We kind of expected they would see the light and bail on it,' he said. 'But we were disappointed when we actually heard it because we would have liked the opportunity to get them under oath and ask them some questions.'

Chuck said he wants the federal government to apologize, and to drop the charge altogether not just enter a stay of proceedings, which means it can reactivate the charge anytime within a year.

Buchanan said the charge arose out of a transaction involving a black bear rug he shipped to a buyer in Skagway. The transaction was properly documented and permitted.

But when the bear skin arrived, the buyer had changed his mind.

It was already across the border, and to avoid going through the steps to secure the necessary permits to ship it back, the Buchanans found somebody else to buy it, Marilyn explained.

Over the years, she said, that sort of thing has happened. Finding an alternate buyer for the product once it's across the border has happened before.

It's not unusual, she said. And in this case, Chuck insisted, authorities knew exactly what had happened.

Crown prosecutor John Phelps said the charge was stayed because the original Skagway buyer of the bear skin is not available to testify, as he's left the United States.

It's not uncommon for the Crown to stay charges when a key witness is not available, he said.

Phelps said he has not been contacted by Buchanan's lawyer with a request to drop the charges instead of entering a stay of proceedings.

He also explained the search warrants were executed as part of a joint Yukon-Alaska investigation. As a result of that probe, an Alaska man is facing charges of wildlife infractions, Phelps said.

He pointed out the man facing charges is the man who ended up buying the black bear skin rug.

He said the charge against Chuck Buchanan did not arise out of anything learned from material gathered during the search. So even if the charge had proceeded, the Buchanans would not have had the opportunity to question the circumstances behind the search warrant, he said.

As for an apology, Phelps said he was only acting on the result of an investigation by the federal investigators.

Federal conservation officer Dave Irvine of the Canadian Wildlife Service said this morning there will be no apology. The search warrants were issued as a result of a bona fide investigation, he said.

Buchanan said with the federal decision not to proceed, he'll be writing the federal and territorial cabinet ministers responsible to explain just how their officers handled the matter.

He'll be contacting the office of the territorial ombudsman to see if there's any recourse, and he's contemplating a civil suit.

Buchanan said he does not fault the Yukon conservation officers, as they were extending professional courtesy when they were asked to assist with a federal wildlife investigation.

But he does want to suggest to the Department of Environment that it should look a little closer at any future requests to assist the federal enforcement officials.