There’s almost nothing that expresses the arrogance of humanity like bad taxidermy. It demonstrates our misguided belief that we create at a higher level than we destroy. We can take the life of an immaculately evolved creature and then stuff and sculpt the life back into it. Granted, some excellent taxidermists come close to mimicking that lost life, but the energy that shines off of every being on this planet can’t be captured, copied, and re-created. That becomes clear when you see the gnarled limbs and twisted faces of animals that haven’t been quite so successfully stuffed. Bad taxidermy is a much better metaphor for how many of our cultures interact with nature; we take what’s beautiful and abundant and make it ugly trash. We arrogantly think that we can cobble together a life that has billions of moving parts. All of that to say, these examples of bad taxidermy make me laugh, and I hope they make you laugh — and think, too.
