Funny taxidermy - disrespectful or harmless?

[JunesDunes]

This post is probably only suitable for people who are happy wearing leather and using feather pillows and badger hair hairbrushes etc.

PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL OF OTHER PEOPLE'S VIEWPOINTS.

I'm not saying which side of the fence I fall on because I'm after other people's views.

There seems to be an increasing number of people making funny or purposely weird taxidermy. The ones that are always shown are the deer with a fairy house created in it's side, the rat turned into knickers and the animals driving barbie cars. But there are also things like rabbits made into ballerinas or mice made into pencil cases. This morning I saw some sort of rodent with a pencil sharpener up it's bum and a duck foot that was put on a spring so you could twang it.

People always say they died naturally or are roadkill so as not to derail the thread, let's just assume that is the case.

Taxidermy is an an ancient practice. Albeit it was often done to recreate the animal in a real life setting. Necklaces and objet d'art including bird skulls and animal bones is common.

So what do people think of "modern taxidermy"? As I say, I'm staying neutral so the YABU/YANBU are random.

YABU - it's a bit of fun. The animal is dead, it doesn't care. Or it's a good way of putting something that would rot away into use. A rat turned into a pencil case is no different to cutting skin off a cow to make one.

YANBU - the animal is dead but it's remains should be treated with respect. A rat pencil case is different to a leather pencil case because the rat is being laughed at in a way that cow skin wouldn't be.

It’s no less or more wrong than ordinary taxidermy. It’s really strange to want to own a dead, stuffed animal in the first place

I've never seen anything like rodents with pencil sharpeners up their bums .

It is obviously sick and in very bad taste.

Disrespectful to who? The dead animal? I mean, it’s not as if the animal is going to have relatives wandering bout feeling disrespected, is it?🤷‍♀️

It is sick and inappropriate. It doesn't matter if a dead animal has aunties or uncles. Obviously.

YABU - it's a bit of fun. The animal is dead, it doesn't care. Or it's a good way of putting something that would rot away into use. A rat turned into a pencil case is no different to cutting skin off a cow to make one.

I misread as Fanny Taxidermy 😂

I guess you could stick a pencil sharpener up any orifice?

I have a taxidermy squirrel head wearing a top hat and with a huge moustache mounted on a plaque in my lounge. Makes me giggle all the time and I pet it's nose as I walk past.

I find it deeply disrespectful and pretty disgusting. My concern is not that the animal minds (it is dead) but more that it coarsens and warps humans' views of what animals are.

People can disagree about whether it's ok to, say, eat animals for nourishment, but we generally agree that the question of whether it's ok is a morally serious one. Deliberately violating an animal's body purely for amusement in a way which is designed to make it appear ridiculous seems to make the opposite statement- that there is nothing morally serious about it, that an animal is merely an item to be used in any way we see fit, so why not put a pencil sharpener up its arse if that might raise a laugh?

The disgustingness of this sort of thing is readily felt when we think about human bodies and the respect with which we feel they should be treated. It's partly for the feelings of the dead person's family and friends, sure, but not entirely for that (after all, it doesn't become acceptable if done in secret)- disrespecting a corpse disrespects human dignity more generally. As with a human, so with a rat, a little. I'm not arguing for ratty funerals etc, just against deliberate violation and ridicule, which offends against the rat's dignity as a rat (or perhaps I mean its eidos and telos) and as a result either sickens us or coarsens us in our interactions with the world.

The victorian taxidermy done badly I have laughed it. The ops ones sound a bit nasty. But I'd never actually own any type of taxidermy

Eat it, wear it, have it posing in a top hat in your living room... it is all the same to me. It is harmless. The animal is dead. This thread reminds me of the man who turned his dead cat into a drone.

Maybe best not look up 'extreme embalming'.

I would love a piece of Victorian taxidermy IE squirrels playing cards with mice
For the record DW says I'm weird.🐭🐿️

I think I pretty much agree with this.

If my cat kills a mouse I won't put the body in the bin because that feels disrespectful to what was a living creature. I will put it outside somewhere out of the way and let nature do what it does, I don't see a problem with letting it rot (or get eaten) - that's what happens naturally. Circle of life and all that. I wouldn't feel comfortable turning it into something meant to be amusing.

Its a weird one for me, I eat a plant based diet but have quite the collection of second hand taxidermy, baby bunny in a jar, wear foraged bone jewellery, have dead bugs and butterflies on my walls and my favourite is a little mouse dressed up as a vampire.

I'm picky about where it comes from, as the ethics in the trade don't sit quite right with the reasons I don't eat animals, but I would absolutely love a little mouse on a stripper pole.

I'm not making any moral judgement but taxidermy gives me the heebie jeebies!!

Why do you need an actual dead animal though. There must be plenty of people who can make a pottery rat, stick some faux fur on it and shove a pencil sharpener in there

A&E prob visited regularly by people who slipped on a pencil sharpener, cucumber, hand tool (other items available) whilst being naked

I like taxidermy. I am not keen on “amusing” taxidermy.

Has anyone been to Froggyland in Split? It's not a new thing and I think it's funny.

I don't like it and can't see the point - surely a fake rat /fox/badger whatever could be used?
I find it very distasteful.

It's not new. I remember seeing odd Victorian taxidermy scenarios as a child

I love taxidermy and think it is hilarious, I will die on this hill!!

I think it's pretty grim but objectively I can't see how its worse than killing an animal to wear or eat - and I do both of these so I suspect that makes me/society a hypocrite.

This is going to be outing but whatever.
I keep pet rats I love and adore them. I also have the skulls of previous rats I've owned and loved. I love being able to keep a bit of them. I would happily own taxidermy of rats. I do plan to buy a little stripper mouse taxidermy actually because it make me smile.
When you die, and the same goes for animals, you leave a body behind and the bit that made you, you is gone so the body is just waste you shed when you die.
I breed rats and we had a baby who didn't make it, I took the body outside and put it under some flowers, DH told me it would just get snatched up by a bird so it was a waste of time but that was why I did it.