How do you feel about taxidermy?

Incredibly creepy!

It doesn’t really appall or disgust me, not for me. I’m not against hunting; it’s just not for me. I’m just not the kind of person that could kill animals as a recreational activity, I can hardly kill animals at all, even bugs. Not in all cases, but generally, I pick them up with a tissue and escort them out of the house. I will confess, I had a bit of mouse problem for a while and I did leave tasty poison treats around in the attic for them.

I suppose if I didn’t mind shooting and killing animals I probably wouldn’t mind hanging their heads up on the wall and them staring at me. And there was a bar in Portland that had a big bucks head over the door and every time anyone went in or out of the bar it’s eyes would light up red. I kind of liked that. And I like natural history museums and they have taxidermied displays.

I’ve heard of people have their pets preserved with taxidermy. That I just couldn’t ever, ever do. I would never have done it anyway but particularly not after my cat Casper died. He was 21, with advanced cancer, multiple fibrosarcomas on his back, and one night he curled up in the crook of my elbow, with his head resting in my armpit, like many nights and we both went to sleep. When I woke up he was dead, and in full rigor. It was horrible, not just that he was dead, but so lifeless and so stiff. It was awful. That’s what having a taxidermied pet would seem like to me. A beloved, dead animal in a perpetual state of rigor. I know taxidermy is something of an artform, I guess, it takes skill to make the animal look like it is kind of still alive, but, still not for me, not at all.

So not a fan, especially of hunting trophies.

I think these taxes are just a way to redistribute dermy and keep the top one percent from getting their rightful, and legitimate share!

I think taxidermy is awesome.

My uncle lives in his den since he doesn’t talk to his wife. He is a avid hunter and has tons of deer heads on his walls. It creeps me the fuck out. But at least he has eaten everything hanging on his walls.

Penis extensions for the mentally and physically inadequate.

Any creature I have killed or will ever kill is treated with respect due to the the fact that it lived and died to feed my family.
I don’t need a taxidermy cock extension trophy, my trophy is my duty fulfilled of seeing my family fed and happy. .

Then again, maybe its me whos the freak as a hunter that feels hurt when I kill.

I thought everyone had one of these….... no? Oh okay then.

@ucme ,
a respectful ROFL from me:)

I like it, It has nothing to do with my penis size like @Boogabooga1 thinks. I personally find the art in it and I am a little dark and sometimes creepy. Not creepy like touch myself in public creepy but I am a fan or horror and gore. I like the slasher movies and the sniper movies. I can’t say it’s never been less than fascinating to me.
As for hunting, I’ve never felt pain or despair for anything I’ve killed in the wild. If I were to attach personal feelings to my food then I suppose I would be a vegetarian. People all the time eat fish and go fishing yet talk shit on folks who hunt deer, elk or pheasant, I don’t understand that sort of reasoning.
Give me antler lamps, deer skin vests, bear skin blankets and elk steaks on the table. If that makes me appear like I need a penis extension then so be it. Hunting is much safer than buying meat on sale at the grocery. It is also more honorable to kill the free roam animal as opposed to the slaughter of a an animal raised in tight quarters and fed shit.

Fine, but I’m not ready yet. I’ll let you know.

I have an odd fondness for it. When I lived in Alaska there was a giant (like 10 feet tall) stuffed Kodiak bear in front of a store downtown. We would pat his flank when we walked by.

Then I knew that Trigger and Bulet had been stuffed by Roy Rogers.

Finally, my mother used to tell the story of how she wanted to be a taxidermist when she grew up. So one hot summer day, she found a dead bird and decided it would be a good candidate for her to practice on. She put it in the window box outside her bedroom window (and promptly forgot about it).

Nature took it’s course and the bird got pretty ripe over the next several days smelling up the house. (This was before the days of air conditioning.) My grandmother looked everywhere for what was causing the smell until finally she found the bird.

@Boogabooga1 At least you didn’t suggest I should “get stuffed!” :¬)

There’s a disturbing possessiveness to it. It takes the already odd idea of “owning” another being to an extreme level. I have cats as pets, and yes, there is some vague sense that they’re mine; but that’s just a formality. Overall, we just share life together, but mostly on my terms. To kill and then stuff an animal is to take utter possession of it, stripping it of its subject-hood and transforming it into an object pure and simple. It makes me wonder to what other extremes of objectification that person might go to.

@ucme that really was a good one! LOL

I fail to see the creepiness. I don’t hunt, and I’ve never fired a gun other than a bb gun. But I like the feeling of stuffed animals. It doesn’t seem much different than wearing a fur coat. It seems like a good use of a pelt. What can I say? I have no problem with it.

@EmptyNest Oh I could see it coming from a mile away…..home run!

Taxidermy in itself I don’t have any problem with.
There is this great museum in Leiden, in the Netherlands, where they have dozens, if not hundreds of ‘stuffed’ animals, which I think is a good way to educate people/children about what they look like, their size, their skin/fur, and to just get amazed by I think it is more ‘friendly’ than a zoo.
The same animals on someone’s wall I feel is less impressive.

Thanks all for the great responses. I was talking more about “trophy rooms” than taxidermy, itself. It doesn’t bother me in museums where people learn from them. But trophy rooms really gross me out.

@Boogabooga1 the whole “hurr durr penis extension lolololol” argument is played-out and absurd.

I agree with survival hunting, otherwise no hunting is acceptable to me.
To collect trophy heads is sadistic, unenlightened and makes a mockery of the life sacrificed.