Taxidermist

CAREER RELATED DEFINITIONS

Per the dictionary: A taxidermist is a person who practices taxidermy. (Editor – Who knew? LOL) 

Taxidermy is the art of preparing dead animals to preserve them with the appearance of life. This is done by mounting or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. 

Taxidermy is practiced primarily on vertebrates (mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and less commonly on amphibians) but can also be done on larger insects and arachnids (e.g. spiders). 

Typical uses of taxidermy are hunting trophies and natural history museum displays. Museums use taxidermy as a method to record species, including those that are extinct and threatened, in the form of study skins and life-size mounts. Taxidermy is sometimes used to memorialize pets. 

A taxidermist is aided by familiarity with anatomy, sculpture, painting, and tanning. 

ONE TAXIDERMIST’S CAREER JOURNEY

Beth Beverly (BB) is a taxidermist, whose business she named Diamond Tooth Taxidermy. That was not her first career path. This is her story and of course, any other taxidermist’s story could be much different, but all such professionals have several things in common:

• Since it is unlikely that any parent or counselor offered only specific career guidance toward taxidermy, it is more likely that a random event sparked a person’s interest in this career path.
• The happiest career paths involve mostly interesting daily tasks that you want to continue learning more about to perform better and better. The word ‘mostly’ is stated intentionally because almost every occupation involves some limited tasks which are not favorites for many possible reasons including repetitively boring, physically, or mentally straining, unsafe, or perceived unnecessary. But in an interesting career, the positives far outweigh the negatives. 

EDUCATION

Following her high school graduation, BB pursued her childhood art passion toward further education to prepare for artistically creative, career opportunities of her choice. 

First, she studied jewelry design at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Next, she enrolled in a school dedicated to circus performances, where she trained on the trapeze. 

(Editor – Pardon this digression but the paragraph immediately above calls to mind a short poem often cited by my father to illustrate the value of preparation: “He sails through the air with the greatest of ease…… But the only problem is, he forgot his trapeze.”)

FIRST JOBS ARE NEVER A BINDING CAREER COMMITMENT

Despite paying to study both jewelry design and then circus performance, BB concluded that she had no serious interest in pursuing either of those occupations as a career path. While still undecided about her long-term future, BB found part-time employment, first as simulated patient for medical training by future healthcare professionals (e.g. EMTs, nurses, physicians) and later as a ‘window dresser’ (window decorator) for a large retail store in center city, Philadelphia. 

SPARKING AN INTEREST IN A NEW CAREER

While working within streetside, show-window displays, BB started to notice dead birds on the sidewalks outside, which she also saw during her lunch-break walks. 

“It broke my heart that they were just going to either rot on the sidewalk or get stepped on, so I started picking them up and taking them home,” said BB. There, she would remove a wing, marvel at its beauty, and think to herself: “Wouldn’t that be pretty in my hair?”

EDUCATION TO START A NEW CAREER

BB’s next cautious step toward her new interest – which she probably didn’t realize at the time would turn out to be her first step along a long career path – was to check out from a local library, a book about taxidermy, which she read carefully, trying to teach herself. 

CHALLENGE – FRIENDS’ REACTIONS TO A NEW CAREER INTEREST

Friends of BB were unimpressed by BB’s mention of her new interest in preserving animal likenesses. BB recalls their uniform reaction: “Oh, that Beth. This is just her next thing.” But BB was neither embarrassed nor dissuaded by her friends’ reactions; she was interested in learning more. 

EDUCATION BEYOND SELF-HELP

Wanting to learn more than she could absorb from reading ‘how-to’ books, BB enrolled in Bill Allen’s Poconos Institute of Taxidermy (in northeastern Pennsylvania). At first, she learned how to construct trophy mounts for hunters but with her artistic background and interests, she always gravitated toward creating fanciful creations: hats with birds and squirrels and all sorts of feathers, which BB wore to equestrian events like the annual Devon Horse Show, which earned her notice and paid commissions. 

One of BB’s creations – a friend’s deceased dog in a tiara and cape on a velvet pillow – won an avant-garde taxidermy contest in Brooklyn. That opened doors. She was invited to participate in an AMC taxidermy reality show, Immortalized. The Netflix series Stranger Things needed some ethically sourced squirrels, so the prop manager came to BB. The Righteous Gemstones also hired her. 

BB has given lectures and workshops on taxidermy at the University of the Arts, the Wagner Free Institute of Science, and New York’s Morbid Anatomy. She’s done work in the Philadelphia area for the Franklin Institute and the Academy of Natural Sciences and as far away as a hunting exhibit in Transylvania (a cultural and historic region in central Europe).

CAREER FOCUS

Pet preservation – also called ‘companion aftercare’ – is what commands most of BB’s efforts now. At any given time, she has three freezers full of deceased critters at her home. 

BB’s work is very private and personal, based on the wishes of each human client who trusts her with the remains of favored pets. 

An example of BB’s work with one client: A 12-year-old dog, Rothko, was a great loss for his owner, TK, who noted that her dog “was with me through breakups and relationships and when I was living on my own for the first time. He was my rock. He was my soulmate.”

Like all animals BB preserves, TK’s dog had to be frozen as soon after death as possible. The client still recalls how kind BB was, letting her reschedule saying goodbye to the dog’s body multiple times. “We had it planned, but I wasn’t ready,” said TK. “BB was very patient and accepting of my grieving process.”

The work BB does is as individual as the animals and their people’s relationships with them. Often her clients will just want a part of their pet as a keepsake. “I’ll ask clients, ‘What part of your cat or dog do you cherish the most? Do you like to hold their paws? Do you like the way their tail wags? Do you like how their ears flop?” she said. 

Even when BB preserves the whole animal, her goal is to try to capture the animal’s spirit. When a tattoo artist, SK, brought her pet rat Bijoux to BB to be preserved, “I just told her she was my spoiled little princess.” Bijoux now stands on a purple velvet pillow BB sewed for her, wearing a tiara and rings on her paws that BB created specially. Her nails are polished.

SK didn’t immediately warm to the idea of taxidermy for Krusty Noodles, her family cat, when her husband first suggested it. “I was like, ‘That’s disgusting! I just want his memory in my head, not the cat carcass, which would be a reminder of death.’ I was just appalled.” But her husband really liked the idea, so SK started telling BB, a fellow artist she already knew, about her irrepressible hunter cat. Now Krusty presides over the family’s dining room, prey, and all.

“When my husband’s friends come over, they literally say, ‘What the (expletive)? Is that a real cat?’ And I tell them the story and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so cool!’” And more often than not, that leads to funny Krusty stories, in death as in life. “It’s such a comfort,” SK said. “I love my taxidermy cat.” 

CAREER SATISFACTION

“I love that people trust me,” said BB, “It’s a great honor.” 

BB was never dissuaded by criticism of her pet-preservation specialty, sometimes heard from traditional taxidermists. And she’s not alone, as a member of MART – the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists. A group with national members, its name speaks for itself. 

The pet owners who turn to BB say there is solace in having part of their animal still with them. 

Says BB, “If I can provide my clients with a tangible token to move through their grief, that’s what I want to continue to do.”

EPILOGUE

BB is already considering a different career move which would continue her passion for trying to help people through emotionally difficult times: a death doula for humans. 

(Editor – A death doula assists a dying person and their loved ones before, during and after death. They work alongside the dying person’s healthcare team to provide emotional and physical support, education, and guidance to promote a positive aspect about the end of a person’s life.)

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This career story is based on multiple sources including a news article written by Rita Giordano, published by The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper on February 25, 2024, plus internet research including Wikipedia.