Odd fellow, drove by in Montana. He had coyotes and mile deer. I asked him if he had a bear that was stuffed. I told him I wanted to take a photo. He said no photos!!! He took me to a sort of garage basement thing and there was a wolf, mountain lion, bear, etc.
I was kind of expecting he would kill and stuff me in the darkness. What was he hiding? Something illegal?
Whoops, mule deer
I once stayed at the Wigwam Motel in Arizona. The owner was a taxidermist, and showed me a room filled with his specimens. He was a creepy guy who reminded me of Norman Bates. I slept with one eye open that night.
I lived next door to one, in Waukesha County, in the 70s.
I walked into his garage/workshop, & looming over me was a giant grizzlt bear.
Being 10, & scrawny, I screeched.
When my BiL was younger he did taxidermy as a hobby. He kind of specialized in birds, particularly ducks as he was a duck hunter. He had done so many that his one son referred to his study as “the room of death”. He also carved decoys as well.
One of my best friends in Junior High practiced taxidermy. He had at least one of every local wild critter - weasel, possum, coon, muskrat, various ducks, geese, doves, etc. He also had domestic animals including chickens, guinea fowl, a piglet, and probably lots of others that I can’t recall. There was a sign on his bedroom door that said “The Quiet Zoo”.
That’s just creepy.
What is taxidermy’s greatest triumph? The Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
(Link has a photo of a taxidermied human, who has since been returned to Africa and has been interred.)
Uh… no.
We called BIL extensive collection of N American and South African animals a dead zoo. He had the front half of a zebra, along with numerous antlered heads, Pelts/skins, random tails and a monkey outfitted in a safari suit wearing a pith helmet and clutching a shot glass.
I have so many dead animals on my walls I swear the population of wildlife around here are punishing me for it. And I never killed any.
Mr.Wrek thought he might side-hustle into being a taxidermist. He has no artistic bent, though. And I refused to help him.
Not my cup of tea.
His favorite taxidermist is the creepiest guy ever. And so is the guy’s wife. She looks like Shelley Duvall, only uglier.
to get to your original question of why no photos…
I don’t really know but I can venture a guess.
I always thought Shelley Duvall was cute when she was younger.
We stop by Joe’s Bar in Ligonier, PA a couple of times most years when pandemics are not occurring. The (now deceased) owner, Joe Snyder, spent his life killing and stuffing all sorts of animals. He used his bar as a place to store/display them. Creepy beyond belief.
We referred to the house we bought in Virginia in 1997 as the Dead Animal House. The owner was a hunter. He had 2 bears (on on all fours, one upright,) a fox, some deer heads, and assorted fish and fowl. I don’t think he stuffed them himself. But I do think they were the reason his house sat on the market as long as it did.
I remember a comment in a review of the Popeye movie, “Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl – the role she was born to play.”
In my travels I’ve seen a lot of places that featured taxidermy collections, including Foster’s Bighorn in Rio Vista, Trader’s Rendezvous in Gunnison, and the Bryce Wildlife Museum. But the most impressive to me was the Bolack Museum of Fish And Wildlife in Farmington, which has a whole other, just as impressive museum next door featuring Bolack’s collection of mechanical items.