Taxidermy was very popular in the mid 20th century. A lot of amateurs did it as a hobby. Even today hunters will get a prized animal head done. If I killed a prized buck with a huge rack then yes I’d get the head mounted. It’s a once in a lifetime thing.
What grosses me out is people that want their pets stuffed. The emotional connection just seems creepy. I love my dogs and would be devastated when they die. I’ve lost three dogs in my 40 plus years of pet ownership. I had no desire to see any of them stuffed and hanging out in the living room.
Roy Rogers had his famous movie pal Trigger stuffed. Not just the head. The whole horse! I guess some pet owners want this service.
I find it pretty creepy even in museums, where it is arguably being used appropriately. I would never even consider for a second having one of my pets stuffed so I could keep that shell around. Frame a little photo, maybe. And I can see why people may keep a little jar of ashes. But a dead cat in the living room, staring at me with glass eyes? No way.
I think it repulsive.
There was also a craze in the late 19th century for electroplating corpses, and keeping the imperishable statues of relatives around the house with the ashes inside. It seems much the same thing.
Dunno what happened to these memento mori, since you don’t see them about much.
Baffling. And I can’t imagine having ANYTHING in common with or even enjoying the company of someone who was into it. Hobbies should not involve corpses. They just shouldn’t.
As for an opinion on it, I don’t really care, to be honest.
I don’t think I’d have the stomach to taxidermy a pet, but I think it’s a little bit interesting to preserve historically important animals this way.
Oddly enough it used to be very popular. I have an original edition Hardy Boy book from 1930’s. Chet bff of the Hardys had just started taxidermy as a hobby. Small birds, squirrels etc. It became a significant plot point in the story. Teens back then could buy the supplies pretty easily.
I wasn’t aware of any high school friends doing this in the 70’s.
Preserving your pets – creepy as all get out. They’re not meant to be used as decorations. Hunting trophies – no big deal. At least if we’re not talking about endangered animals or anything like that. Most hunters I know hunt for meat, and then mount the heads if they get a really big one. It’s like a “using all parts of the animal”, kind of thing.
I have no problem with hunting trophies, and even have a few in our house. But I think doing it for a pet is a bit disturbing. Not sure why… just seems a bit strange.
I was a Biology major, so preserved specimens don’t bother me, and I have several cases of preserved insects: beetles, butterflies, moths, cicads, dragonflies, etc that I collected and mounted. Hunting trophies of animals which were killed for food don’t phase me, but I don’t want to see big cats and other non-edible predators outside of a museum. Not a fan of killing for sport.
Pets though… no. I don’t want to be friends with anyone who can live in the company of the glassy eyed stare of a former best buddy.
Taxidermy is gross. I think I’m actually more grossed out by hunting trophies than pets, but I’d find having Fluffy stuffed to be highly eccentric at best.
I like to pretend that the big moose head in Abercrombie is fake. Don’t tell me it isn’t.
I don’t have a problem with it as long as the animal wasn’t killed for the sole purpose of producing a specimen.
I had a cat who everyone thought was so beautiful, and my brother thought I should have her stuffed when she died. He was even willing to pay for it! I told her that I was going to do no such thing, and had the body cremated.
I think it’s creepy and awesome. I would love to stuff my pets after their deaths, if I could afford it. I already own a couple stuffed critters (a quail and a squirrel) and plan on getting more.
Most of you must be totally creeped out at funerals seeing those dead humans prepared and stuffed with things you don’t want to know about.
I’m kinda meh about it all. If a hunter wants to mount his trophies I may have fleeting questions in my mind about what he is trying to say about himself and why. But it’s no big deal.
I actually did consider having one of my kitties preserved. But not the way you are describing. I thought of her curled up asleep on her favorite pillow. And I did leave her that way for several hours after her death while I made up my mind and said my goodbyes.
Finally I couldn’t justify the expense (or watching her get her fur rubbed off.)
I’m a zoo educator, and often use mounted specimens in my programs.
There’s three questions kids will ask me, without fail, when I bring out a mount. Yes, yes, no, I deadpan, before they get a chance to even ask. Is it real? Is it dead? Did you kill it?
Keeping animals alive is a difficult and costly business. Preparing program animals to interact with humans is even more so. There are some species that just could not be used for programs - their housing requirements are too difficult, they are too subject to stress.
Take lemurs. I have a stuffed red ruffed lemur, that I allow my class participants to touch. If that was a real live lemur, then, for everyone’s safety, I wouldn’t allow that. Some illnesses are anthronotic (transfer from people to animals) or zoonotic (vice versa). Lemurs are social animals - to remove one, even temporarily, from a troupe, can cause havoc in the hierarchy upon their return.
So, for me, taxidermy definitely has it’s place. It’s also expensive, and we have limited storage space. Plus, it doesn’t last forever. My abovementioned lemur is balding in spots.
Thank you, Claverhouse! You sent me off to find the illustrious Dr. Varlot and bookmark his process for further reading.
Since I’ve been a steampunk since the sixties and didn’t even know it until they came up with a word for it, I was taken by surprise. Never heard of this. And yes, where are those shining silver corpses?
Did Grandchild Elsie finally get tired of having to polish Grandma every Saturday morning and give her a proper burial? Or is she somewhere in the bowels of a dusty olde antique parlor?