Someone said that cat videos are the new internet porn, and it's not a far fetched concept for anyone on social networks. Those with pet owners on their friend list often find themselves with pictures of pets (and breakfast) in their feed, along with the corresponding complaints from the more curmudgeonly among us.
Somehow, over time, I've gradually become privy to perhaps the less pleasant (but no less cute) side effect of this phenomenon; odd taxidermy. It was probably when I went to the Buckhorn Exchange in Denver, where the walls are filled with taxidermy; one or two of the animals mounted on the wall had anamolies, like three eyes for instance, and everything on the wall had once been on the menu (I only drank there). I've got a collection of photographs of dead birds. I was concerned that I'd offend people here if I posted about this, but there is a precedent here on WFMU's Beware of The Blog, so I decided to add to its legacy. The foregoing is a veritable coluratura of creepitude.
I knew that people made alligator handbags, but I admit, I had no idea that there were people making a deer's rump into a bottle opener, or packaging ale into the corpse of a squirrel. I'd say with no shame that I'm not terribly surprised. I am surprised, however, that a man took the corpse of his beloved cat, Orville, and made it into an "Orville-copter". All that aside, I'm more interested in the botched taxidermy, the critters who are forever immortalized with crooked, constipated facial expressions, or the guy who may have gone to jail for fusing the parts of different endangered animals together (all of this is undeniably striking by the way) to make two headed geese, or a squirrel crab, etc. Whether they are intended as memento mori or fashion statements or surrealistic heirlooms, is for the viewer to decide. I am not sure if I'd do these things to my cat Chollie (he'd make a good bear skin rug), nor am I sure if I'd consent to be some kind of human paraglider corpse, but I do find it fascinating. The range varies from profoundly artistic to childish and mean spirited. A whole slew of selected odd taxidermy below.
Related: Human Doll Clones in Japan (you can't "unsee" this), and Robotic Beastiality Sculpture decomissioned after 20 years due to broken goat motor.
Dr. Seuss taxidermy from real animal parts
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From Creative Taxidermy contest in Brooklyn, via Morbid Anatomy
Kamui4u on Flickr
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