Now this really is a bit freaky !!!

[Hawk]

I was searching E-bay last night looking for Parrot Paintings and things, when I came across the most freakish thing on Ebay.

Taxidermies, stuffed real Parrots !!! Thousands of them. Seriously??? People stuff parrots then sell them? How sick! I've heard people have their beloved pets preserved and stuffed, but as a business? Something not quite right about this.

Any thoughts people, Have you seen this?

 

[4dugnlee]

Oh my, never really thought about it. I can't imagine what my fids would do if I brought a "stuffed" parrot into my home...lol. But I don't think it would be pretty...

 

[Dinosrawr]

I can't even imagine... I could hardly picture doing that to any animal, let alone a family member. I think a lot of it has to do with a trophy hunting mentality, which (thankfully) I do not have. Ick. I mean, if you like looking at them so much, why not go watch them in their natural habitat? That's so much more beautiful to observe...

 

[Birdman666]

Oh my, never really thought about it. I can't imagine what my fids would do if I brought a "stuffed" parrot into my home...lol. But I don't think it would be pretty...

Well, that one reminds me of the old joke of the parrot who wouldn't behave...

I'll cut right to the punch line, the rest of the joke is irrelevant anyway:

"At that point the parrot's owner became so enranged that he stuffed the bird into the freezer, and shut the door on him. After a few minutes, he opened the door to the freezer and out stepped the most polite, well behaved, apologetic parrot he had ever seen. The owner was dumbfounded, but delighted at the sudden change in behavior.

After apologizing profusely the parrot finally asked, "Excuse me, but exactly what did the chicken do?!"

Stuffed bird = SEE THIS?! Now knock it off!

Who are the people in that photo, and am I missing something?!

 

[Birdman666]

I can't even imagine... I could hardly picture doing that to any animal, let alone a family member. I think a lot of it has to do with a trophy hunting mentality, which (thankfully) I do not have. Ick. I mean, if you like looking at them so much, why not go watch them in their natural habitat? That's so much more beautiful to observe...

I haven't a clue why anyone would do that. I have photo memorials on my wall, but to actually keep your dead stuffed pet?!

I can't imagine doing that, or wanting to...

 

[Sunset_Chaser]

That would gross me out!

 

[Kiwibird]

Um, no thanks. If Kiwi passes, a photo on the wall will be fine. His physical body can go back to the earth. Couldn't imagine stuffing a dead pet and putting it on display (or worse, someday selling it on ebay!). How crass!

 

[weco]

Those are often purchased by specific specie collectors, schools of taxidermy, veterinary schools, museums, bird watchers & other interested persons.....

As long as there is a market for a product, there's somebody around willing to buy it.....

 

[Allee]

Stuffed Parrots, that's too horrible for me to contemplate. I know there is a certain amount of art involved but I'm just not able to appreciate it. I try to avoid being around taxidermy, that can be tricky in Central Texas. Thankfully, I've never seen a stuffed parrot.

 

[henpecked]

You should get the chance to see the Smithsonian collection. How do think Audubon painted such perfect birds? He was holding them in his hands.

 

[Allee]

You're right, Richard. I've studied Audubon's work, but I didn't have to see his models, only the results. His blue jays are my personal favorite. I have yet to visit the smithsonian, but it's definitely on my list.

There was another artist, more recent and not nearly as famous that used stuffed domestic cats for her models.

 

[Hawk]

Those are often purchased by specific specie collectors, schools of taxidermy, veterinary schools, museums, bird watchers & other interested persons.....

As long as there is a market for a product, there's somebody around willing to buy it.....

True, there are collectors, schools of taxidermy and etc., But to sell on ebay....I don't know just not right. My birds would go back in the earth if they passed, I have photo's of thousands of my birds, and that alone would be precious memories...not to have them sitting next to me stuffed like a ghost....That's a tab freaky.

 

[EAI]

I've seen a few (okay maybe hundreds) of those when I went through that weird phase of wanting an "exotic" pet. (Backstory: When I couldn't have a bird it was the best next thing and was close to buying other animals as well)
I'm proud enough to say that I never went with it but was extremely close of buying REPLICATED bird skulls (the original skulls were those of animals who passed in Zoos).

There was an oddities show on TV and you would see a lot of birds that were taxidermied (sp?). It is sickening to see how "messed up" they look afterwards with the feathers though.

I really hope those birds have passed because of only natural causes, only then would I support it in the case of it being used as a teaching device.

 

[Mekaisto]

The parrots that are stuffed aren't necessarily pets, they can come from all sorts of origins, zoos, wildlife carers, etc. Of course some species (mainly ducks, deer, etc) are hunted and taxidermied afterwards.

I personally think it looks amazing when done right, a professional taxidermist can really capture the look and feel of a living, breathing animal. I have our animals mounted once they pass, and use them in our education centre. I do some stuff myself, mainly skeletons, but am not good enough at taxidermy yet.

I won't post pictures here, since obviously not everyone is ok with it, but looking at the work that comes out of taxidermy competitions is awe-inspiring.

I'm fine with dead things, which is probably why I'm ok with taxidermy, and I also like to collect bones and skulls I find/am given because I think they're beautiful, and aid our understanding of the natural world.

 

[Delfin]

I have known couple who have had their Dog stuffed and it was really amazing in how well it was done. But I was under the impression that animals were stuffed mainly for scientific purposes.

 

[Hawk]

They are beautiful stuffed, as I see in many pictures of them for sale, Just wouldn't do my own bird. You know those toy drones you can buy with camera's? Well this guy had his cat (when it passed away) stuffed and made into one of those flying drones, ( look it up on the net) flying cat drone. The guy says he fulfilled his cats dream of really chasing birds now....LOL....Too funny.

 

[Allee]

They are beautiful stuffed, as I see in many pictures of them for sale, Just wouldn't do my own bird. You know those toy drones you can buy with camera's? Well this guy had his cat (when it passed away) stuffed and made into one of those flying drones, ( look it up on the net) flying cat drone. The guy says he fulfilled his cats dream of really chasing birds now....LOL....Too funny.

That should have been on an episode of oddities.

I'm not sure why I have such an aversion to taxidermy animals, I just hate being around them. That's odd, because I went to a Body Worlds Exhibit and I was fascinated, I thought the plasticine models were breathtaking. A lot of people walked out as soon as they realized the bodies weren't replicas.

 

[Roanoke]

I personally think it looks amazing when done right, a professional taxidermist can really capture the look and feel of a living, breathing animal. I have our animals mounted once they pass, and use them in our education centre. I do some stuff myself, mainly skeletons, but am not good enough at taxidermy yet.

I won't post pictures here, since obviously not everyone is ok with it, but looking at the work that comes out of taxidermy competitions is awe-inspiring.

I'm fine with dead things, which is probably why I'm ok with taxidermy, and I also like to collect bones and skulls I find/am given because I think they're beautiful, and aid our understanding of the natural world.

It probably isn't a popular opinion but I second what Mekaisto said.
I have nothing against well done taxidermy that honors the animal.
However I would never get one of my pets taxidermied. The taxidermist doesn't know what your pet looked like in life, so how would they be able to replicate it in death? The unique facial expressions get lost.

 

[Betrisher]

When I was doing my (Botany/Zoology) degree, I spent much of my time hanging around in our University museum helping the curator make relevant displays. The first thing about well-done taxidermy is that no guts are involved in the process. The deceased animal is carefully skinned and then the skin is treated to a) clean it thoroughly and b) keep it intact and unstretched ready to be 'stuffed'.

The 'stuffing' process doesn't mean the reconstituted skin is packed firmly with hobbyfill! The taxidermist has to have a profound knowledge of the animal's skeleton and musculature in order to get a good approximation of a framework on which the skin will be mounted. Sometimes, the skull will be left intact and its contents removed, other times it will be desiccated or freeze-dried. The main aim in the preserving process, whatever form it takes, is to remove decomposing bacteria so the skin will not rot over time. Also, it has to be insect-proofed so that Dermestid beetles (Museum Beetles) don't get in and chomp away at the connective tissue which holds the skin together. For larger animals, the framework might be made of wood or aluminium. For smaller ones, chicken wire or something similar works well.

Birds are extremely hard to 'stuff' because of their thin, supple and easily-torn skins. The feathers will fall entirely out of a preserved skin unless you take immediate steps to 'set' them. There's nothing very attractive about a bird skin with half its feathers gone!

While I was at Uni, our Zoo. department got a freeze-drying machine. I can't remember the principle behind it, but you would put your (dead) specimen into its stainless steel chamber and turn it on. After the desired cycle (a day for a reptile - large snake or lizard; a week for a larger, moister mammal - rabbit or cat), you could remove your specimen. The innards would be completely desiccated so they rattled around inside (could be easily removed through a slit in the abdomen or near the anus). Best of all, your specimen would be completely lifelike and in whatever pose you'd left it in.

This was how our Museum curator (lovely chap by the name of Glenn) came to fashion a rock band made out of pestilential Cane Toads. It was hilarious! Each toad had a black wig (made out of Glenn's donated ponytail) and wore a tiny pair of denim jeans lovingly crafted by Mrs Glenn. Finishing touches were suede vests, headbands and tiny cardboard guitars. The drums were made out of foil-covered cardboard and bore the words 'The Beetle-eaters'. That quartet sat on the Zoo. department desk for years and years. Brings back fond memories.

Other memories. The time an Australian Fur Seal died at Marineland. The autopsy was done in our department (poor thing died of botulism!) and we were allowed to keep the skin. Glenn did a marvellous job of curing and 'stuffing' it and Silas the Seal also graced our department museum for many years.

Another time, our department head had been travelling in the US and took with him various specimens of the 'rare' and beautiful Australian Red Kangaroo and the Euro (wallaby). In return, he got lots of great stuff for our display cases! There was a Bengal Tiger skull (which I coveted: you should have seen the fangs on that baby!), a Kodiak Bear skull (another envy-provoking specimen) and, among other things, a Skunk's dried and preserved skin. On the day when the skunk skin arrived, I was up in the first-floor lab. I could smell it as it came in the front door on the ground floor! Whew! Needless to say, the resulting lifelike specimen was christened Pepe Le Pew and kept in a sealed perspex case!

When my third-year class did its various dissections, we were always careful to remove the skin of whichever animal we might be studying. 'Things' could be made from them! One bloke made a lovely display of his Tiger Snake's skin. Another was unable to save the skin of his Southern Snake-Necked Tortoise, so his wife made a green velvet stuffed replica and that was displayed inside the original animal's carapace (pretty nifty-looking it was, too!) I only managed to preserve my rat's skin. Sadly, the Bearded Dragon I dissected had been roadkill and so his skin was a mess. I wound up with a rather nice rat-skin hatband, though. It was a black Hooded Rat and so the skin was piebald.

The thing is that if you've ever studied biology at any level (especially anatomy), you really come to appreciate the value of a well-made specimen. The laws concerning animal welfare and the humane treatment of laboratory animals in Australia are tighter than my Mum's purse-strings, so it's only creatures that die by accident or misadventure that come the way of the taxidermist.

I have in my own possession a small collection of skeletons and skulls, one of which belonged to my cat, Figaro, who met a sticky end on the road. I prepared a goat's skull as a museum specimen for my final year exam and had to name all its structures as part of the test and prepare a pen-and-ink drawing of it from three aspects. There's no more thorough way to learn the bones of the skull, I promise.

Last story: on my twenty-fifth birthday, my then-boyfriend turned up at my door with a possum he'd found dead on the road. He told me he'd wanted to keep it for himself (he was in my Zoo 300-50 class), but in a rush of love he gave it to me as a gift. Now, how many people do YOU know who've been given roadkill for a birthday present???

I tanned the possum's hide and used it as a doiley. The skull is still on my shelf (next to Figaro and a kangaroo's mandible) and the skeleton wound up in the Zoo museum for spare parts.

In closing, I'd just like to say that people who study animals, their anatomy, physiology and behaviour, are generally immune to the 'ick' factor in the same way doctors are immune to the same thing in human beings. It's just biology, after all. I would never bother to keep a 'stuffed' specimen of a pet of mine because it's not the skin that evokes the most precious memories. They're kept in a person's heart and no specimen can touch those sorts of feelings.

I s'pose beauty really is in the eye of the beholder and if a person finds a 'stuffed' specimen beautiful, then that's his call, eh?