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To: The Hunting Report From: Luis Filipe C. Passanha Guedes Re: River Run Outfitters Date: December 26, 2000
Last Spring I contracted with Mr. Horace Lane of River Run Outfitters, Newfoundland, Canada, for three combo hunts (bear, moose and caribou) for two friends and for myself. I stated from the very first letter that our priority was the bear.
In September we arrived in Newfoundland to start our hunt, but unfortunately we immediately found out that absolutely nothing was organized for us to hunt the bear.
Since then, our hunt quickly turned into a nightmare. This means that nothing that was agreed with Mr. Lane was being accomplished. After three days of hunting (a whopping lie, ludicrous comedy or a nightmare), my friends decided to return immediately to Portugal.
On the fourth day I have been moved to another camp, where six American hunters were already there for the same purpose.
Incredibly at the end of the week only two of them got one trophy moose, and a very poor male caribou. This means that ten hunters during one full week only got two animals. As you can see, a fantastic average regarding the publicity (promises) Mr. Lane has in is Internet advertisement.
Mr. Patrick Smith (KIFARU), Golden, Colorado, was our American fellow hunter at Beaver Lodge, and if you want to contact him, for sure he will tell you everything that did not happen (but should have happened) there.
I am also enclosing a copy of the letter we sent to Mr. Lane on October 10th, asking him to refund our money, (but until now we did not received any answer from him), a copy of the statement of Mr. Carl Blake the resident manager of Beaver Lodge (our first camp) and the copy of the e-mail from our friend Patrick Smith. For sure with all these documents you easily find out the plot where we have been involved.
Of course, we will never ever recommend our friends to go hunting with Horace Lane of River Run Outfitters.
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To: Horace Lane of River Run Outfitters From: Luis Guedes, Mr. Silva e Costa, and Mr. Ferraira Re: Combo Hunt for bear, moose, and caribou
In the month of July we contracted with you (River Run Outfitters) for a combo hunt for black bear, moose and caribou for the price of $6,300 each.
During the telephone call we had at that time, it was clearly expressed that our first priority was the bear, then the moose, and finally the caribou, which was by no means a hunting cause of traveling to Canada.
We where informed by you that (information that also exists in your Internet site and published ad):
The fair chances for the bear were 2/3 (two of the three hunters) although everything would be done to fulfill the expectations on the matter for the three hunters.
The probability for a trophy moose would be about 85 percent (100 percent chance of shooting).
The probability for caribou was 100 percent.
We were also informed we would be hunting in the River Run Lodge (details for the rooms and location where given by you).
With these briefings in mind, we traveled to Newfoundland.
We met you in the Sinbad Hotel in Gander for a few moments, and full payment was made, and you expressed nothing against the previous statements.
We then traveled with Mr. Dean Blake, in the company of on American hunter (Patrick Smith) to a place we soon found was not the River Run's Lodge and it was managed by Mr. Blake.
At our insistence about how the hunt for the bear would be conducted, the resident people told us clearly (as they clearly made a written report of that), that no bear hunt was to be conducted, because they normally don't do so and that the only news about this kind of hunt had been produced by you the morning you met us. You sent us to a place where you have never been to, inspected, or had any other previous hunting experience, and with people you never met before. You told this people to buy donuts to try to bait the bears, the day we where coming to the hunt, (if it wasn't told and described to us it would be hard to believe!) what they of course refused to do.
They also made clear that most moose hunts in their camp were for meat. This meant they barely understood we were looking for male trophies, and that, in such a short period of time, (three days) the chances of bagging such an animal were almost none. Of course you knew that no European hunter would come to Canada to hunt for meat, and that he certainly would not be able to bring it back to his country.
Although completely astonished by this news, we proceeded (four hunters) to hunt the next morning (Monday) with three guiding people, which made one of us "share" a hunt with a U.S hunter we have never seen before. The position regarding the way the hunt would be conducted was particularly unclear.
We hunted in trucks, in a forest, where there were several other trucks loaded with hunters hunting at the time, in short distance, and with frequent encounters, making us wonder what would happen if one animal was spotted.
Unfortunately the four of us saw no animal that morning. At that time, realizing the misunderstanding going on I urgently insisted on speaking with you, informing of what was happening, and telling you to contact us later after the evening outings, to take measures.
That evening no animal was seen by any of us, and the chances of seeing one trophy moose in the next days remained, as accompanying people told us, close to nothing.
Having not succeeded in contacting you, I decided with Mr. Fernando Ferreira to make my way back to Portugal. Although not really believing in different results, and because Mr. Guedes had different plane tickets, he decided to give the hunt a chance; only to conclude, from his experience, and Mr. Smith's that he had no chance to recolt any of the promised animals in the hunt we paid for.
Facing the gravity of the situation we invite you in the period of seven days from today to refund us the money we wrongly paid you, by bank transfer, or any other correct mean.
If we do not have any written acknowledgement from you, this situation will be put:
To our lawyers in Newfoundland from whom you will receive legal prosecution for the price of the hunt, traveling expenses and lost time;
To the Outdoor Department of Tourism of Newfoundland;
To the Canada embassy in Portugal;
To the Safari Club International and other hunting societies we are part of.
May you believe Mr. Horace Lane that in so many years of hunting around the world we have never felt so deceived as this time.
We remind you that we have not only written reports that support our position, but also several people are willing to testify on this matter in Newfoundland and are even urging us to proceed with official charges.
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To: Luis Guedes From: Carl Blake Re: Hunt for bear, moose, and caribou
Horace Lane was the agent for the moose licenses for the Beaver Lodge. We don't do bear hunting at the Beaver Lodge, but if you see a bear while moose hunting, you can shoot it. Our land is public to any moose hunter.
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