I believe that I have mentioned this in another thread, but I would suggest caution when buying animal hides from unknown sources.

A local artist imported a quantity of hides for use in his art. The hides were contaminated with anthrax spores, which left him severely ill to the point of death. Also, the entire apartment building where he had his studio had to be evacuated and decontaminated.

This has also happened, lesser dramatically, with hides from Latin America.