Colorado Taxidermy Sale Laws: What You Can (and Can’t) Legally Sell

Selling taxidermy laws in Colorado sit at an odd intersection of state wildlife code and a stack of federal statutes that don’t care what your Colorado hunting license says. A legally shot elk shoulder mount can change hands at a garage sale without anyone blinking, while a hawk feather glued onto a wreath in that same sale can turn into a federal wildlife case. That gap between “obviously fine” and “obviously illegal” is exactly where most sellers get into trouble.

This breakdown walks through what Colorado allows, where federal law steps in and overrides state permission entirely, and what paperwork you need in hand before you list a mount for sale, trade an old trophy at auction, or clean out a relative’s estate.

Is It Legal to Sell a Taxidermy Mount in Colorado?

The starting point is Colorado Revised Statutes Title 33, which governs wildlife in the state. Except as otherwise provided by statute or by rule of the commission, it is unlawful for any person to knowingly sell or purchase, or knowingly offer for sale or purchase, wildlife for the purposes of monetary or commercial gain or profit. That single sentence is the backbone of nearly every taxidermy-sale question in the state.

The exceptions matter as much as the rule. Under Colorado’s wildlife sale regulations, wildlife and wildlife parts legally possessed under a valid commercial parks license may be sold, bartered, or traded in accordance with Chapter 11 of Commission Regulations. For an ordinary hunter who legally tagged an animal and had it mounted, the personal-property exception generally covers a one-off sale, but anyone treating taxidermy as a business needs to look at that licensing chapter directly.

One species-specific rule trips up sellers more than any other: Colorado doesn’t allow you to sell bear gallbladders, a restriction tied to black bear (Ursus americanus) parts that also show up in illegal wildlife trafficking cases nationwide. As one taxidermy industry resource puts it, every state has its own laws regarding the sale of taxidermy, so you need to look yours up and contact your state’s wildlife agency to confirm, because laws change all the time.

Important Note: This article explains the general legal framework for Colorado taxidermy sales. It isn’t legal advice. Confirm species-specific rules with Colorado Parks and Wildlife or an attorney before listing anything unusual, high-value, or involving a protected species.

Federal Rules That Override Colorado: MBTA, ESA, Lacey Act, MMPA, and CITES

Even when Colorado law is silent or permissive, five federal statutes can still block a sale. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) is the one most taxidermy sellers run into first. The MBTA imposes a felony penalty on persons who buy, sell, or barter any specimen on the list of migratory bird species, as well as a misdemeanor penalty for unlawfully killing any of those birds. The bird list is broader than most people expect: the Act protects all species of “migratory” birds found in the United States, and then some that aren’t typically thought of that way, like vultures or buzzards. Bald and golden eagles are also considered migratory birds and are protected by the MBTA and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) works alongside the MBTA but covers a different list. The ESA provides misdemeanor penalties for unlawfully taking or trading in species listed as endangered or threatened under federal law. It also does double duty internationally: the ESA implements the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora, known as CITES, by prohibiting improper trade in species protected under that treaty. If a mount involves an internationally protected species, ESA and CITES rules apply even if the animal was never inside U.S. borders.

Then there’s the Lacey Act, the oldest of the group. The Lacey Act was the first federal law that regulated commercial animal markets, and it prohibited the sale of illegally killed animals between states. Its modern version works as a two-step trigger: if an animal was taken in violation of any underlying law — state, federal, or foreign — the Lacey Act adds separate federal liability the moment that specimen moves in commerce.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act adds a layer specific to seals, walruses, polar bears, and whales: it generally bars commercial sale of marine mammal parts, with narrow exceptions for items lawfully taken and documented before the law took effect in 1972. Anyone holding a marine mammal mount inherited from an older relative should treat that exception as an exception, not a default.

Which Species You Can and Cannot Sell as Mounts in Colorado

Once you clear both the state and federal layers, the species list splits fairly cleanly into two buckets.

• Generally sellable: Legally harvested big game like elk, mule deer, and pronghorn; upland game birds that aren’t classified as migratory; most freshwater fish, including rough or invasive species commonly targeted through bowfishing; and nuisance species taken under Colorado’s nuisance wildlife rules, provided the take itself was documented and lawful.
• Restricted or banned outright: Migratory bird species and their feathers, absent a specific federal exception; bald and golden eagle parts; bear gallbladders and several other bear parts; any species currently listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA; and marine mammal parts without pre-Act documentation.

The feather restriction is narrower and stricter than most sellers assume. Colorado regulation states that no person shall purchase, sell, barter, or offer to purchase, sell, or barter for millinery or ornamental use the feathers of migratory game birds taken under authority of this chapter, and the state applies whichever rule is tougher: federal and state laws and regulations govern the taking of all migratory birds, and in all cases the most restrictive state or federal regulation applies by species. Practically, that means a Colorado exception won’t save a sale if federal law is stricter, and vice versa.

Nuisance wildlife occupies its own gray zone worth checking case by case. If a mount came from an animal taken under Colorado’s nuisance wildlife laws, the permission that allowed the removal doesn’t automatically extend to a commercial sale of the finished mount — verify the specific take authorization before you list it.

Proof of Lawful Take, Tags, and Bills of Sale You Need Before You Sell in Colorado

Every legal sale traces back to paperwork proving the animal was taken lawfully in the first place. For migratory birds specifically, Colorado regulation requires that no person shall put or leave any migratory game birds at any place other than his personal abode, or in the custody of another person for processing or for the purpose of having taxidermy services performed, unless the birds have a tag attached, signed by the hunter, stating the hunter’s address, the total number and species of birds, and the date the birds were killed.

On the federal side, anyone mounting migratory birds for someone else needs a Federal Taxidermy Permit. A Federal Taxidermy permit is required to perform taxidermy services on migratory birds or their parts, nests, or eggs for someone other than yourself. That permit authorizes the holder to receive and temporarily possess legally acquired, properly tagged migratory birds for mounting or other preparation. The tag itself follows the bird through the whole process: it may be removed during taxidermy operations but must be retained and reattached after mounting, and must remain attached until the specimen is delivered to the owner.

Roadkill and out-of-season finds need a separate paper trail entirely. If you find a roadkill gamebird or waterfowl out of season, or don’t have a small game hunting license even when the bird is in season, you need to contact your local Colorado Parks and Wildlife office to ask for permission to keep it — the same logic that governs Colorado’s roadkill laws for larger game applies here. Bring proof of that permission when you drop the specimen off at a taxidermy studio, and keep that same document if you plan to sell the finished mount later.

Colorado also reserves the right to regulate anyone operating as a wildlife dealer rather than an occasional seller. The state can establish requirements for persons engaged in the business of buying, selling, processing, or otherwise handling wildlife to keep records of such transactions and make those records available for inspection.

Pro Tip: Keep tags, CPW permission letters, and the original bill of sale from the taxidermist together with the mount itself. If you ever resell it, that paperwork becomes the buyer’s proof of lawful origin too.

Estate Sales, Auctions, and Special Permits in Colorado

Taxidermy shows up constantly in estate cleanouts, and the professionals who handle those sales treat it as routine business. Selling taxidermy is part of being an estate sale professional or auctioneer, and there are both federal and state laws regarding it — every state is different. The complexity scales with the specimen: a whitetail mount is usually simple, while anything involving migratory birds, bears, or older ivory-inlaid pieces needs a closer look.

A well-known Colorado example illustrates the stakes. An auctioneer once toured the taxidermy-covered walls of Denver’s Buckhorn Exchange restaurant and had to work through exactly this question before any sale could happen: could the trophies legally change hands at all, and under whose authority. That same due-diligence step applies to any large estate or restaurant liquidation involving mounted wildlife in the state.

For sellers operating at real commercial scale rather than a single estate item, Colorado’s licensing structure requires a separate track. Wildlife Park Licenses provide for lawful possession, propagation, and sale of native and exotic wildlife via a mandatory licensing process, and CPW’s Special Wildlife Licenses page is the right first stop to determine whether a given operation needs that level of authorization. Colorado regulation even gets specific enough to define terms like velvet antlers — those deer, elk, and moose antlers completely enveloped by soft vascular skin — showing how granular the rules get once real commerce is involved.

Interstate Sales: When the Lacey Act Makes Another State’s Ban Your Problem

Selling within Colorado is one legal question. Shipping a mount to a buyer in another state — or bringing one into Colorado from elsewhere — is a different one entirely, because the Lacey Act treats interstate movement as its own trigger. Transport across state lines for personal purposes, including taxidermy, satisfies the interstate commerce element that federal prosecutors need to bring a case.

That means a mount that’s perfectly legal to own and sell in Colorado can still create federal liability if the animal was originally taken in violation of another state’s law, because the Lacey Act enforces the underlying violation the moment the specimen crosses a border. Colorado’s own migratory bird rule captures the same principle on a smaller scale: the most restrictive state or federal regulation applies by species, no matter where the buyer happens to live. Anyone shipping wildlife products, live animals, or animal parts into or out of the state should also review Colorado’s pet import laws, since interstate movement of animals and animal-derived items tends to trigger overlapping documentation requirements.

Felony exposure under the Lacey Act depends heavily on intent. Felony penalties attach based on the offender’s knowledge and on the nature of the second step of a Lacey Act offense — meaning a seller who genuinely didn’t know the mount’s origin was tainted faces a very different legal outcome than one who did.

Dog and Cat Mounts: Why Federal Fur Law Blocks Commercial Sale

Mounting a beloved pet is legal. Selling that mount commercially is where federal law draws a hard line. The Dog and Cat Protection Act of 2000 makes it unlawful to import into, or export from, the United States any dog or cat fur product, or to engage in interstate commerce in any dog or cat fur product. The Act does carve out an exception, but it’s narrower than sellers assume: the prohibition does not apply to a personal pet that is deceased, including a pet preserved through taxidermy.

That exception protects your right to keep your own pet’s remains — it isn’t a license to build a resale market. Once a preserved dog or cat mount enters commerce for profit, especially across state lines, it risks falling back under the fur-product definition the exception was designed to avoid. Violators of the Act may face civil penalties, debarment from trading in fur products, and forfeiture of the dog or cat fur products involved.

Colorado’s own animal protection framework reinforces the same outcome from a different angle. The state’s animal cruelty laws treat dogs and cats as companion animals with distinct legal protections that most wildlife species don’t get, and breed-specific rules like Colorado’s pit bull laws reflect how heavily regulated companion-dog ownership already is in the state. The personal-pet exception generally assumes an owned companion animal, too — a mount made from a stray or feral dog covered by Colorado’s feral dog laws doesn’t fit the same legal category and deserves its own separate check before anyone attempts a sale.

Important Note: There is no established legitimate marketplace for commercial dog or cat taxidermy sales in the United States. Even where a specific transaction might fall into a legal gray area, taxidermists and reputable dealers routinely decline this work entirely.

Penalties for Selling Illegal Taxidermy in Colorado

Penalties stack depending on which law gets triggered, and more than one often applies to the same sale. The table below summarizes how the main statutes discussed above treat violations.

Law	Violation Type	Penalty Class
Colorado wildlife sale statute (Title 33)	Knowingly selling or purchasing wildlife for commercial gain without an exception	State wildlife offense
Migratory Bird Treaty Act	Buying, selling, or bartering a protected bird species	Felony
Migratory Bird Treaty Act	Unlawfully killing a protected bird	Misdemeanor
Endangered Species Act	Unlawfully taking or trading a listed species	Misdemeanor
Lacey Act	Knowing, commercial trafficking of unlawfully taken wildlife across state lines	Felony
Dog and Cat Protection Act	Interstate commerce in dog or cat fur products	Civil penalty plus forfeiture

Beyond the specific penalty class, most of these statutes carry secondary consequences that hit sellers just as hard. MBTA violators may be subject to criminal penalties, including fines, imprisonment, and forfeiture of property used in connection with the violation — meaning a seller can lose the mount, the sale proceeds, and face additional fines on top of any criminal sentence. Forfeiture of the specimen itself is close to automatic across nearly every federal wildlife statute, regardless of whether the seller ultimately faces jail time.

Who to Call Before You List a Mount in Colorado (Wildlife Agency Checklist)

Before listing any mount for sale in Colorado, work through this sequence:

1. Contact your regional Colorado Parks and Wildlife office to confirm the species’ legal status and whether the sale needs any state-level license.
2. Check the species against the current federal endangered and threatened species list before you advertise anything involving an unfamiliar or exotic animal.
3. If the mount involves a migratory bird or bird part, contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Regional Migratory Bird Permit Office about Federal Taxidermy Permit requirements and tagging rules.
4. Pull together your bill of sale, harvest tags, and any written CPW permission covering roadkill-sourced or nuisance-take specimens before you meet a buyer.
5. If you’re shipping the mount out of state, check the buyer’s state law directly — remember that the Lacey Act still applies even if Colorado law alone would allow the sale.

None of these steps take long individually, but skipping any one of them is how legal mounts end up seized, sellers end up fined, and otherwise straightforward estate sales turn into federal wildlife investigations. A five-minute phone call to CPW or the regional USFWS permit office before you ever post a listing is the cheapest insurance available against all of it.