Reflections on the subject of taxidermy

R

Rose65

Well-known Member
Location
United Kingdom
I am reading a book by Clare Balding entitled 'Heroic Animals'. I am very inspired by true stories of all sorts of beasts and birds that did incredible things, including saving many human lives during wartimes. Homing Pigeons especially, by carrying vital messages.

Yet one thing rather disturbs me, which is that many of these animals were stuffed and displayed in museums at the end of their lives, whether they died naturally or otherwise. My personal view on taxidermy is that I find it troubling. I don't want to see animals and birds in glass cases in museums.
I have read that people even have their beloved pets stuffed. I couldn't ever do that!

However, opinions may differ and that's ok. I am just curious, as ever, to ask what people think? Some may say taxidermy preserves species for educational purposes.
 

When I was working, I had a nice boat, and often went fishing on my days off...mostly for large Muskellunge. Catching one of those was a real challenge, and they fought really hard. I would get them to the boat, then remove the bait and release them, One day, I caught a real nice 40 inch Musky, and he had swallowed the lure. I was unable to get the hooks out, and he died. Rather than just tossing him back into the lake, I took him to a taxidermist, and he has occupied a place on my wall ever since.
 
Rose65 said:
I am reading a book by Clare Balding entitled 'Heroic Animals'. I am very inspired by true stories of all sorts of beasts and birds that did incredible things, including saving many human lives during wartimes. Homing Pigeons especially, by carrying vital messages.

Yet one thing rather disturbs me, which is that many of these animals were stuffed and displayed in museums at the end of their lives, whether they died naturally or otherwise. My personal view on taxidermy is that I find it troubling. I don't want to see animals and birds in glass cases in museums.
I have read that people even have their beloved pets stuffed. I couldn't ever do that!

However, opinions may differ and that's ok. I am just curious, as ever, to ask what people think? Some may say taxidermy preserves species for educational purposes.
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I have a friend who loves her pets and all animals so much. She puts videos up every day on fb showing the wild critters who come to her yard. No question she loves them all. But her walls are covered with her late husband's trophy deer heads. I can't stand to look at them. But the worst thing of all is that she had a cat that she loved so much that when he died she had him stuffed and he sits on a desk in her house.

I could not stand that. I can barely stand to see my animals when they die even though most of the time I was holding them. I am not saying anything against her for doing that because I love her. Just is not something I would do.
 
I release fish(mainly Striped Bass) that I'm not going to eat. Sometimes a fish isn't going to survive, but I throw it in the lake, where the birds and other fish can get a meal from it.
 
katlupe said:
I have a friend who loves her pets and all animals so much. She puts videos up every day on fb showing the wild critters who come to her yard. No question she loves them all. But her walls are covered with her late husband's trophy deer heads. I can't stand to look at them. But the worst thing of all is that she had a cat that she loved so much that when he died she had him stuffed and he sits on a desk in her house.

I could not stand that. I can barely stand to see my animals when they die even though most of the time I was holding them. I am not saying anything against her for doing that because I love her. Just is not something I would do.
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I feel like that. I would rather remember my pets but accept they must go at some point.
 
I find stuffed birds especially upsetting, surely all their beauty is gone without movement and life. Perhaps I am too sensitive but I would rather look at birds soaring in skies, singing on branches, not still with unseeing glass eyes. It's macabre.
 
I once preserved a 12 inch shark that my Father caught off a
jetty in Ft Pierce Fla, he was very proud of that tiny shark, also
once "preserved" a set of "Triggerfish" teeth, which are wicked
looking, that for my Mother.....!!!!
 
I was just reading another story, this one about Jack, Edith Cavell's dog. She was a famous courageous nurse who paid with her life by helping Allied troops in the first world war.
After death her beloved dog Jack was preserved in the Imperial War Museum a museum, because he had played an important part in her rescue missions. . I find that horrible, I mean why on earth was that necessary?
It's preserving an empty thing. Once a life is gone, it's gone.
 
I've done a little taxidermy myself. It's not easy stuffing those little buggers.

fly.jpg
 
About 29 years ago while visiting Scotland, my wife and I walked into a small curio shop . . . it might have been in Fort Augustus. There were several cats sitting around which didn't surprise us. It isn't uncommon in our area for small shops, especially bookstores, to have cats that wander around mingling with the customers. We were shocked, however, when we realized that THESE cats were dead & stuffed.

I'm not at all opposed to taxidermy, but I haven't heard of anyone here stuffing their pets. :rolleyes:
 
Pepper said:
That's what I was thinking. I'm glad it was done way back when to introduce people to nature, i.e. Museums of Natural History, but now?
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They still do it now, but it's done a lot differently....not for display but to preserve the specimen's physical appearance for student scientists to study. The mammalian specimens are stuffed with sterile cotton instead of excelsior or whatever, and all specimens are stored in drawers, or jars, or various types of cases and tanks, depending on the species.

You can see them even if you're not a student, but you're escorted by a curator. You can tour the butterfly room, the raptor room (predator birds), the crustacean room, etc.
 
In the funeral home, after viewing my deceased mother in her coffin, I and a few others were led down to the home's basement by the funeral director where I was horrified to see heads of wild animals mounted on a wall. (A funeral home!! Where deceased human loved ones were viewed!!) I was so sickened to see them inappropriately (IMO) there that I would not have been surprised to see a few "customers'" human heads mounted. :mad:o_O
 
I've never had a problem with taxidermy, although to be honest, I've never given it much thought. (I will now.)

I find taxidermied animals less sad than zoos, though. Zoos depress me. And people having their pets stuffed—ugh. I could never do that.
 
I grew up surrounded by taxidermy at the hunting and fishing camps my family used and it always bothered me to see stuffed critters with glass eyeballs on the end table or mounted on the wall. :cry:
 

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