In our fast paced rat race filled lives, they say having hobbies is a good thing. Having something outside of work to keep yourself well balanced is the key to a happy and healthier you. So some of us pick up gardening (there’s something therapeutic about when your hands gets mixed with soils of the earth, it’s almost as though nature just absorbs all the negativity away), some get busy with books or spend time sailing, but either way generally hobbies are relaxing passions that often bring us back into the arms of nature. Yet not all hobbies are conventional and some just really stand out, like taxidermy.
I would say taxidermy is an acquired taste. Those who like it would see it as art and a form of preserving the beauty of life, but those who don’t would probably see it as a creepy infatuation with dead things and trophies. We’ll I’m not a hunter and as much as I love animals, I really wouldn’t get involved with stuffing them. From a purely personal point of view, it’s disturbing to see something dead staring back at you and I think there’s just something about taxidermy and the lack of respect for the life that became art. But that’s just me.
But that’s not what I want to discuss about taxidermy. The point I want to make about this hobby, is how it’s anything but eco. It is very involving of nature as the whole idea is to ‘preserve’ nature as it was in the state of life but ironically, the whole process does nothing to actually ‘preserve’ the environment.
You see taxidermy is mainly about mounting or reproducing dead animals for display. And since the law of nature is to go ‘ashes to ashes and dust to dust’ upon death, preserving dead animals would have to involve a lot of chemicals. In fact part of the taxidermy process is tanning, so that ought to give you an idea of how toxic it can be.
I can’t go into the details of how taxidermy is done because there are quite a few methods that are available these days from molding to dry freezing. But the point here is taxidermy involves very poisonous chemicals and it won’t just affect the taxidermist but also anyone who comes in contact with it. Of course they will tell you that the animals are for display and not to be touched but like most chemicals, you don’t really need direct contact to have your health affected. So my advice is to be careful around these ‘artworks’ and I would avoid exposing children to them for more than just fear that they might have nightmares from it…
