Is Having A Dead Pet Taxidermied Really That Creepy?

Fans of Knut the Polar Bear lost it when they found out he was going to be stuffed and put on display, but some people feel taxidermy is the best way to remember a beloved pet. Today the New York Times profiled Amy Finkel, a documentary video teacher at Parsons School of Design who’s working on a film about what people do with the remains of their late animal friends.

Through her work on Furever, she’s befriended Mike McCullogh, owner of Mac’s Taxidermy and Freeze-Dry, who specializes in freeze-drying and preserving dead pets. Most people definitely find the idea of having Fluffy stuffed and sitting in the living room totally macabre, but Finkel says the human-pet bond is extremely strong, and people have different ways of handling the loss (including sleeping with their stuffed pet). “People are just just doing what offers them comfort,” she says. “A lot of Mike’s customers feel they’ve cheated death in some way.”

While McCullogh has been interviewed by several journalists in the past, he says Finkel is different because, “She wanted to know about the feeling side. Yes, it’s a crazy thing, but she’s not interested in sensationalism. She’s open minded about this, and I am, too.”