Don’t stuff your animals; team anti taxidermy

Photo: Creative Commons
November 18, 2021
Don’t taxidermy your precious pet. After all, there’s a reason why the vet doesn’t tell you you’ll get your pet back in good shape if it dies.
As I scroll through TikTok, I look at the curated videos suggested to me based on my previously viewed videos, aka my for you page. I see a handful of pet taxidermy videos, more than I would care for. I guess the TikTok algorithm thinks I’m a taxidermy fan, and I’m here to set the record straight. I am a firm believer in being vehemently anti-pet taxidermy.
This whole piece started when I saw a video of a poor dog after its owner preserved its carcass for their viewing pleasure. If you wish to not view the video, I will do the disgusting honors of explaining the video. The TikTok shows a pet chihuahua that now has an oddly bendy spine.
The person who is responsible for the video is a ‘vegetarian taxidermist.’ Why did they include their meat preference? Who knows, but I now feel peer pressured to include the detail that I eat meat.
Immortalizing your pet in your living room as a shelf decal seems more hurtful than honoring. Just because they were your pet does not mean you know what is best for them. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to become part of the furniture in your parents home once you pass even if your parents thought “that’s what you would have wanted.”
@reanimatedremains works on preserving animals for their owners, with over 134,000 followers on TikTok and 14,000 on Instagram. As much as I disagree with stuffing the carcass of your dead pet, I have to admit that the taxidermy is well done. You have to give credit when it’s due and @realanimatedremains knows what they’re doing when it comes to making once living things into stiff, stuffed animals.
The crux of why I’m anti-pet taxidermy is that I do not understand the purpose of the entire process. The animal has already crossed the Rainbow Bridge, a metaphor that all pets go to this peaceful place after death. A place where they are no longer in pain, they can play all the time, and have unlimited food.
Oddly enough, taxidermy is a profitable career path — according to Taxidermists Career Information “Those with five to 10 years of experience and proven skills can earn $30,000 or more. Some exceptional taxidermists can earn upwards of $50,000 annually. Museum workers might also expect to average $25,000 to $30,000 yearly.”
Taxidermy is a practice that is for the wealthy. I cannot imagine spending that much money to preserve your pet. Especially when not everyone has the luxury of spending around 200-300 dollars to keep their pet forever, and that is only for a cheaper taxidermy process.
The practice is just so gruesome and it shows how little respect people truly have for any life that doesn’t resemble their own. Your beagle had a heartbeat just like you, so why would you treat the moments of his passing life as a nightstand? Animals, especially pets who are known for being a part of our everyday life, should be treated with the same respect you would treat your dead grandmother.
Taxidermy is solely for those who are living, it doesn’t benefit the animal. It’s a selfish choice that we as humans make to help us sleep at night.
I understand there are deep connections between animal and owner, and sometimes it is hard to let go, but there are better options than keeping them forever as a piece in your home for your guests to stare at. It is creepy, it can be cool, but it is mainly creepy. Let your pet rest, put them somewhere they would have loved, and please stop turning them into your disturbing version of a Build-A-Bear.
It makes me think that if there was an ability to taxidermy people we loved who have passed on, people would do it. If you wouldn’t taxidermy yourself then don’t put your poor pet through it.
Mylan
Jul 9, 2023 at 10:20 pm
So then we shouldn’t be putting our animals and our human loved ones in boxes. I know it’s hard to move on but the corpse in the ground is an inconvenience for the living since we keep reproducing and needing more space for the living. Get ur deceased ones cremated or else it’s creepy that u keep them in a box underground.
Pbot
Apr 7, 2023 at 12:47 pm
Why don’t you mind your own business, FFS. Don’t want to taxidermy your own pet? don’t do it – mourning and grief is personal and your opinion is not good reason to write an article making people feel bad for how they want to grieve. Shame on you.
Jfreitag
Jan 16, 2023 at 12:16 am
As you stated…The pet soul itself has moved on. I can’t believe you’re so callus to say you can’t understand why someone would do it? After death the pet certainly will not experience anything, but the owner may receive much solace from still being able to see their pet. Just because you wouldn’t doesn’t mean others shouldn’t.
Krys Tucker
Nov 17, 2022 at 10:36 pm
I love my pets and some I won’t be able to live without seeing daily once they go. I have 2 I wish I would have done this process too bc I miss them so much and just to see their face every day would mean so much to me. I will do this for my dog mj (Mary Jane) and would have no problem with it being done to me if my children wanted bc I know my energy will be around them anyway however for me parting with my animals is unbearable and I want to see them every day, faces starting at me (dead or not) so in all due fairness, you shouldn’t have an opinion so strongly on this bc it’s not your pet, or your life
EH
Jul 13, 2022 at 12:11 pm
Then don’t get your pet taxidermied? Like, I get your points here but also you aren’t exactly putting into consideration what others may be getting from this art form. Wish you would have spent more time talking to artists and clients, rather than just putting a lazy piece of journalism together after watching a couple of TikToks.