The federal and Yukon wildlife departments are being accused of conducting a heavy-handed and unnecessary search and seizure when a simple phone call would have sufficed.

Veteran taxidermist Chuck Buchanan, his wife, Marilyn, their son, Shane Buchanan, and his wife, Hanna, all believe that simultaneous searches of their individual businesses in October were misguided and inappropriate, not to mention intimidating.

What has come from the investigation is a charge against Chuck under international exporting laws pertaining to wildlife and plants, a charge he is confident will amount to nothing in court.

All four suspect the charge is frivilous. They feel it was filed by an embarrassed federal government in an attempt to somehow justify the effort involving so many officers, the time and money wasted, and the seizure of all files and computers at both locations for no apparent reason.

Officers also took the gun safe at Chuck's and Marilyn's Caribou Crossing tourist destination.

'We have all the paperwork, and they have all the paperwork,' Chuck said in an interview last Friday afternoon. He noted the duplicate copies the government keeps of all export permits issued.

As the matter was before the courts, Chuck originally restricted his comments when contacted last Thursday, a day after he was charged with falsifying a name on an export permit. He maintained then, however, that everything would become crystal-clear in front of the judge.

A short time later, however, following a conversation with his son, who owns and operates Northfork Taxidermy with Hanna, the two couples expressed a desire to share their experiences.

Yukoners, they believe, should be informed of the abrasiveness displayed that day, and how logic failed to prevail.

Yukon government spokesman Dennis Senger said the Department of Environment will not comment, as it is a federal matter, and Yukon officers were only requested to assist as per the joint-investigation agreement.

Federal officer David Irvine of the Canadian Wildlife Service said the federal department would also not be commenting, as the matter is before the courts. He did say the matter arose out of a joint Yukon-Alaska investigation.

Chuck Buchanan says in 34 years of taxidermy work in the Yukon, of securing the necessary paperwork for exporting wildlife mounts out of the territory, he's had no problems.

Whenever there's been an issue arising out of paperwork that seemed out of step, on either his part or the government's part, a line of communication that has been well used over the years has been all that was ever needed to sort out any questions, he insists.

In this case, he and his wife were on the Big Salmon River for their annual vacation at the tail end of the tourist season when they called to check in and were told of the raid on their home and business earlier that day.

They terminated their trip, though it took them three days to get out of the bush and back home.

Buchanan's mother and father, who live on the property, had arrived home from a trip to Whitehorse on the morning of Oct. 4 to find a group of federal and Yukon government wildlife officers searching the business premises.

Only after her insistence did the officers surrender their names to Buchanan's 77-year-old mother.

Not once on this matter, at any time, says Buchanan, was he contacted by wildlife officials with any questions.

'It was totally above-board,' Buchanan says. 'We have a clear and concise explanation.'

Buchanan says he doesn't want to get into the particulars of the case, because it is before the courts, though he did explain it involved a black bear mount for a Skagway resident via an Alaskan handling company.

All the necessary paperwork is in order, he insists.

Buchanan says Caribou Crossing grossed $1.2 million in business last year.

Does it make sense, he asks, that he and Marilyn would risk that for one black bear mount?

He says wildlife officers asked him to come into Whitehorse to open the gun safe. He refused, suggesting he'd finished wasting his time on the matter. They returned the safe for him to open in Carcross, and it took the officers all of about two seconds to look inside and find nothing, he says.

Chuck suspects the federal embarassment can be seen more clearly in the government's response to his request that it pay to repair a laptop officials had broken as a result of the search and seizure. That particiular law, Buchanan point out, clearly states government is not responsible for damage resulting from the seizure.

In this case, the willingness to pay for the damage was immediate, he says.

Shane Buchanan has run his own taxidermy export business for five years.

He says the information provided to the justice of the peace to obtain a search warrant for his property was inflammatory. It says Norfolk was falsifying export permits, and that proof lay in the buildings at his Mayo Road business location.

Identitical information was used to support the search warrant for the Caribou Crossing business.

In the case of Norfolk, however, it was pointed out to the justice of the peace that the Buchanan family has hunted 39 black bears over the last 14 years.

The officer suggested to the justice of the peace that level of harvest was unusual, Shane notes. Chuck, however, points out there are seven active bear hunters in the family, and that there is nothing unusual about that level of harvest by seven different hunters over 14 years.

Marilyn says officials must have been grasping at straws to somehow somehow find a way to cast their net over Norfolk while investigating Caribou Crossing.

The businesses, she explains, are completely separate. There was a point either this year or last they deal with hundreds of permits when the name of the two businesses appeared on the same file. She suspects it was a government clerical error, given the family association and the same type of business.

But the file with the two business names has nothing to do with the investigation in question, she says.

At 9 a.m., Oct. 4, as officers were arriving at the Carcross location where nobody was home, three federal officers, two wildlife officers from the Department of Environment and an RCMP officer arrived at the Mayo Road business with a search warrant.

Shane and Hanna were read their rights to remain silent, and the officers spent the next several hours searching and seizing, with no explanation of what they were doing or looking for.

The officers suggested employees who had yet to arrive be contacted so they could take the day off, as the investigation would be going all day.

Sure, says Shane and Hanna, their files were returned the next day. No charges were laid, though they were still left not knowing what was going on, still left with the stress of uncertainty and trying to keep a focus during the busiest part of their business season.

'They came back and said, Oh, you guys are a good group, your records are immaculate,'' Hanna recalls.

But word of the probe by wildlife officers spread fast.

In a business where you are hired to mount a trophy for a hunter who has already paid thousands to hunt the animal, outfitters and hunters get nervous if there is any hint that paperwork for the trophy is not in order, Shane explains.

He said he asked the federal officials for a written apology to provide to his clients as proof that Norfolk Taxidermy has done nothing wrong, but received none.

'Chuck an Marilyn get a kick at the can in court, but we don't,' says Shane.

It will be difficult to assess if any damage has been done, if a client here or a client there decides to go elseswhere down the road, Hanna says.

'I think the public was due a little bit of insight on how their tax dollars were spent,' says Marilyn.

Perhaps, the four agree, it was more a case of a make-work project by the Canadian Wildlife Service for a relatively new enforcement office that isn't exactly run off its feet.