New Growing Trend Across the U.S. - Freeze Drying Pets

Growing up on the family farm, Anthony Eddy learned early on not to get too attached to animals, including household pets.

His devoted customers are a different story. Pet lovers across the country count on the Saline County, Missouri, taxidermist to faithfully preserve Brutus, Fluffy and other beloved companions for posterity.

Even if it means shelling out thousands of dollars and waiting more than a year for the pets' return.

"They're very distraught, because their child has died. For most people, this animal is their life," said Lessie 'Les' Thurman Calvert, Eddy's office manager.

"Some are kind of eccentric. But most of them are just like you and me. They don't want to bury or cremate them. They can't stand the thought. ... It helps them feel better about the loss."

The front showroom of Eddy's Wildlife Studio in downtown Slater is a testament to pet owners' perseverance.

Lifelike dogs and cats of all sizes are scattered along the floor, from a perky-looking Brittany spaniel to a regal Persian cat, a lone iguana and the stray cockatiel or two.

Departed pets of all persuasions spend up to one year in hulking, freeze-dry metal drums before they are painstakingly preserved and returned to their owners.

Eddy said his business is one of the few in the country to specialize in pet taxidermy and has a two-month waiting list.

A former high school chemistry and biology teacher, hog farmer and Air Force veteran, Eddy started out in traditional taxidermy, stuffing great horned owls and pheasants with the help of a local veterinarian.

He originally used the freeze-dry technique to preserve mounted turkey heads for hunters before realizing in the mid-1990s it could also work with pets.

Eddy, 64, compares his line of work to the mortician's trade. He'll share broad details about the process with customers but likes to keep some mystery to the process and steer clear of the gross-out factor.

He's quick to embrace the artistry of his craft, especially when it comes to the primping and prepping required once the internal organs and body fat are removed and the carcass is fully dry.

Depending on the customer's preference, pets can be posed with a skyward gaze, an extended paw or with eyes closed, seemingly asleep.

"You just have a knack for it," he said. "It's like an artist painting a picture".

The degree of difficulty - and the scrutiny of demanding pet owners who can immediately detect flaws or imperfections in their loved ones - keep many traditional taxidermists from the domestic animal sector, said Steve Wolk, president of the National Taxidermists Association.

"No matter how perfect your pet comes out, there can still be something wrong," said Wolk, who owns Little Creek Taxidermy in Festus, Mo. "When you go deer hunting, you don't know what that deer looks like. Everybody knows exactly what their pets look like".

Debbie Rosa, a 59-year-old teacher who splits her time between southern Maine and Port Charlotte, Fla., had her 17-year-old fox terrier, Lexi, preserved by Eddy when the dog died just before Christmas 2005. She said the choice was an easy one.

"I could stare at an urn, or I could stare at the ground in the cemetery, or I could hold and pet her," Rosa said. "Her spirit is in heaven, but her body is here on Earth".

Eddy and Calvert estimate they receive two to three pets each week, every week. The studio charges $850 for pets under 10 pounds and $40 for each additional pound.

Allen McConnell, a psychology professor at Miami University in Ohio who studies pet owners' behavior, said those who opt for animal preservation can be motivated by grief, a need for belonging and anthropomorphism - the act of ascribing human attributes to animals or even inanimate objects.

"It's very common for people to memorialize important members of their family," he said. "We often visit relatives in family gravesites on birthdays. ... It's part of an extended connection that people have".

Eddy said he is no longer surprised by unusual requests from customers.
It seems that as long as humans embrace animals as four-legged friends, those bonds will continue past the pet's expiration date.

"It runs the whole gamut," he said, mentioning turtles, guinea pigs, snakes and more. "If you've got a pet of some kind, somebody's going to want you to preserve it".

Preserving: Joe Pycke prepares a deceased cat before placing it in a freeze dryer at Anthony Eddy's Wildlife Studio

Posterity: Animal lovers from across the country call on Anthony Eddy and his team to faithfully preserve their beloved departed pets

Full house: Receptionist Lessie Calvert sits behind her desk surrounded by freeze-dried animals

Frozen: Pycke pulls a cat out of a freeze dryer, an essential step in the preservation process

Resting: A freeze-dried squirrel and dog wait for their loved ones to take them home

A freeze-dried dog is displayed on a table at Anthony Eddy's Wildlife Studio in Slater.


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A Shoe Designer, from Berlin, Germany, Collects Carcasses from Her Local butcher, and Makes Shoes

This bizarre range of shoes may make the owner feel like they have one foot in the grave.

Crafted from dead animals, Iris Schieferstein's outlandish designs fetch up to £3,900 ($5,051.94 U.S. dollars), and have proved a hit with extreme dressers such as Lady Gaga.

Some of the most controversial pieces include a pair of sandals sporting stuffed doves with their wings spread wide and a collection of heels fashioned from hollow horse hooves.

The 45-year-old designer, from Berlin, Germany, collects carcasses from her local butcher which are discarded after the meat is used for sausages.

She spends a week stripping out any remaining meat and bones from the animal's feet and the skin is sent to a tanner to be treated for preservation.

The sculptor then sets the skin - complete with fur still in place - around a shoe model before hand-stitching insoles and lining.

She said: 'Creating the shoes is ugly work, taking the meat out is not nice, like any taxidermy.

'When I began working with dead animals I would pick them up from the street.

'But they are protected by the government in Germany, and so after ten years they tried to put me in prison. Now I use my butcher.'

The horse boots feature horse fur, a zip up the front, an intact hoof and horse bone as a heel.

While a pair of snakeskin stilettos feature a replica pistol as a heel with the reptile seemingly eating its own tail.

Describing her inspiration Ms. Schieferstein added: 'I love horses and I love shoes so I thought this would be perfect.

'Horses have a beautiful walk and I wanted to recreate that with my footwear.'

The footwear has been displayed at numerous exhibitions around the world and have even inspired a range from Dolce & Gabanna.

Despite the high price tag the footwear can only be worn for several hours at a time before becoming too uncomfortable.

Ms Schieferstein said: 'As yet no company has been willing to produce them for the high street.'

Last year the artist made a pair of custom-fit shoes for Lady Gaga.

 Extreme dressing: A pair of shoes featuring cream horse fur with a front zip and bone heel

   Suffer for your art: The heels can only be worn for several hours at a time before becoming too uncomfortable

 Macabre: This pair of snakeskin heels show a snake seemingly eating its own tail

Some of Iris Schieferstein's most controversial designs include a pair of sandals sporting stuffed doves

Sculptor and artist Iris Schieferstein has been using dead animals for her works, here she models a hat made from a dead bird

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45-Year-Old Designer, Iris Schieferstein, from Berlin, Germany, Collects Carcasses from Her Local Butcher to Make Shoes

This bizarre range of shoes may make the owner feel like they have one foot in the grave.

Crafted from dead animals, Iris Schieferstein's outlandish designs fetch up to £3,900 ($5,051.94 U.S. dollars), and have proved a hit with extreme dressers such as Lady Gaga.

Some of the most controversial pieces include a pair of sandals sporting stuffed doves with their wings spread wide and a collection of heels fashioned from hollow horse hooves.

The 45-year-old designer, from Berlin, Germany, collects carcasses from her local butcher which are discarded after the meat is used for sausages.

She spends a week stripping out any remaining meat and bones from the animal's feet and the skin is sent to a tanner to be treated for preservation.

The sculptor then sets the skin - complete with fur still in place - around a shoe model before hand-stitching insoles and lining.

She said: 'Creating the shoes is ugly work, taking the meat out is not nice, like any taxidermy.

'When I began working with dead animals I would pick them up from the street.

'But they are protected by the government in Germany, and so after ten years they tried to put me in prison. Now I use my butcher.'

The horse boots feature horse fur, a zip up the front, an intact hoof and horse bone as a heel.

While a pair of snakeskin stilettos feature a replica pistol as a heel with the reptile seemingly eating its own tail.

Describing her inspiration Ms. Schieferstein added: 'I love horses and I love shoes so I thought this would be perfect.

'Horses have a beautiful walk and I wanted to recreate that with my footwear.'

The footwear has been displayed at numerous exhibitions around the world and have even inspired a range from Dolce & Gabanna.

Despite the high price tag the footwear can only be worn for several hours at a time before becoming too uncomfortable.

Ms Schieferstein said: 'As yet no company has been willing to produce them for the high street.'

Last year the artist made a pair of custom-fit shoes for Lady Gaga.

Extreme dressing: A pair of shoes featuring cream horse fur with a front zip and bone heel

Suffer for your art: The heels can only be worn for several hours at a time before becoming too uncomfortable

Macabre: This pair of snakeskin heels show a snake seemingly eating its own tail

Some of Iris Schieferstein's most controversial designs include a pair of sandals sporting stuffed doves

Sculptor and artist Iris Schieferstein has been using dead animals for her works, here she models a hat made from a dead bird

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Preserving Beloved Pets After Death Through Stuffing and Freeze Drying Has Gradually Become Another Option for Owners

Mary Kaufman of Lonoke, Ark., still sleeps near her beloved Yorkshire terrier Brittney, even though the dog is long dead.

After Brittney died last year at age 14, Kaufman, 64, bypassed the pet cemetery and backyard burial to have the little dog stuffed and freeze-dried. Kaufman said being able to still look at and touch the deceased pet made her feel like Brittney, her loyal companion, was still with her.

"Brittney represents a lot to me," Kaufman said. "I lost a husband and I lost a son and I had Brittney during that time. When we lose a family member, we don't just forget about them and just move on. They're still a part of our lives. That doesn't mean I have to let go of the past."

Pets are a huge industry in the United States. The American Pet Products Association estimates that Americans will spend almost $53 billion on their pets this year. The association's 2011-12 National Pet Owners Survey says roughly 62 percent of U.S. households own a pet, which equates to 72.9 million homes.

Preserving beloved pets after death through stuffing and freeze-drying has gradually become another option for owners.

Daniel Ross, 35, a professional taxidermist who preserved Brittney, is the owner of Xtreme Taxidermy http://www.xtremetaxidermy.com/, a burgeoning business he runs out of a shed in the front yard of his home in, of all places, Romance, Ark.

"If you raise something for 15, 20 years, it's not just simply a pet anymore. It's part of the family," Ross said. "Some people think it's weird ... but I can tell you that for all the customers that I've had, and I've seen the joy and happiness, the peace that it brings back to their life to have their beloved cat or dog or whatever back, it's worth it."

In his office, Ross has freeze dryers packed with pets from across the country. It costs about $500 to $700 to have an average-sized dog stuffed with cotton and freeze dried. The process takes months, and people don't just send their cats and dogs. Ross has received a prized rooster and a hairless rat, among other odd requests.

Ross said one Texas woman paid a few hundred dollars to have him pose her deceased spider monkey with an empty can of her late husband's favorite beer glued to its hand. She then wanted her husband's ashes poured into the empty can.

Such unique requests garnered Ross and his business their own reality TV series on Animal Planet called "American Stuffers," with each episode ending with a pet owner reuniting with his dearly departed. But Ross said he didn't get into the pet preservation business to make money.

"I'm a professional. I'm not some backwoods taxidermist," he said. "It's an odd way to make a living, and trust me ... I never would've thought that I'd be working on somebody's beloved pet and being on TV, or anything like that."

Kaufman also appeared on an episode of "American Stuffers," which showed the great lengths she took to make preserving Brittney possible, including keeping the dog in her freezer for "a couple of weeks." Kaufman added that she doesn't care if people think she is "crazy" and said she plans to have Brittney buried with her when her time comes.

"A lot of people do choose to bury their animals, or have them cremated. If that is what they choose, I think that is fine, but I don't think that anybody should criticize anybody for what you do with your pet," she said.




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Not Everyone is into Chocolates for Valentine's Day: Oddities Shop Sells Dead Puppies for Valentine's Day

Some might prefer, say, a dead puppy preserved in a jar.

Jason Haack, owner of Bonez by Dezign Custom Lamps and More, in Sioux Falls, S.D., said the romance-themed weekend brought several customers into his Sioux Falls oddities shop.

"You've got to have a little bit of a morbid side to you," Haack said, as he sat in the corner of his shop between a shelf of bones and a wall of taxidermied animals.

The business started in the back room of his mother's flower shop and has expanded to the front room with a section of collectibles for sale in one area of the shop.

Haack sells various animal bones, skulls and skeletons. He also has a shelf of wet specimens, meaning animals preserved in jars.

That's where the puppies are kept, in jars that look like in another life they could have held jam.

The puppies come from different breeders. They are all stillborn. None of them lived outside the womb, and none of them were killed for purposes of making collectors items.

"It's never been somebody's baby," Haack's mother Jodie Haack said.

But Haack has seen his fair share of criticism. When he posted a picture on Facebook of the puppies in jars, he received death threats, his mother said.

He saw another wave of criticism on social media after he posted a Valentine's ad for the puppies. Some commenters raised question as to the legality of Haack's operation.

It's all legal, though, Haack said.

"Just because somebody doesn't like it doesn't mean it's wrong or illegal," Haack said.

Customer Ashely Nielson became interested in collecting wet specimens after seeing the TV show "Oddities." She has purchased a puppy, a kitten, a bat and a scorpion from Haack's shop.

She's also heard people call her hobby "weird" or "gross," but she replies, "To each their own."

"I don't think people should judge other people's hobbies and what they like," Nielson said.

Nielson views her collection as a chance to give love and attention to these animals who never had a chance at life.

She said she would love to receive a wet specimen for Valentine's Day.

"That would be better to me than roses or jewelry or anything like that."

Jason Haack is the owner of Bonez By Dezign in Sioux Falls, S.D., Monday, Feb. 15, 2016. Haack buys, sells and trades unidque and odd items.

A puppy is preserved in a jar at Bonez By Dezign in Sioux Falls, S.D., Monday, Feb. 15, 2016. The puppy was stillborn.

Carson Damiata, 14, shows a snake, puppy and calf preserved in a jar at Bonez By Dezign in Sioux Falls, S.D., Monday, Feb. 15, 2016.

A snake is preserved in a jar at Bonez By Dezign in Sioux Falls, S.D., Monday, Feb. 15, 2016.

Carson Damiata, 14, shows various animals bones, skulls and skeletons for sale at Bonez By Dezign in Sioux Falls, S.D., Monday, Feb. 15, 2016.

Bonez By Dezign buys, sells and trades unidque and odd items in Sioux Falls, S.D., Monday, Feb. 15, 2016.

Carson Damiata, 14, shows a skull from 1895 at Bonez By Dezign in Sioux Falls, S.D., Monday, Feb. 15, 2016.

A zebra lamp at Bonez By Dezign in Sioux Falls, S.D., Monday, Feb. 15, 2016.

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Have You Seen the Animal Chairs of Maximo Riera?

When you’re designing your dream room, you may find yourself thinking about the one piece of furniture that will really make a statement.

And if making a seriously unforgettable statement is for you, then the animal chairs of Maximo Riera just might be for you. But don’t say we didn’t warn you! These things are intense.

Creating, or even making over, a piece of furniture is a serious project and takes a considerable amount of time, just like this conversion of a century-old sleigh.

And these amazing chairs are no different. Each one is custom-made using cutting-edge technology in a process that can take up to eleven weeks to produce just one.

But take a look at them and you’ll see why. While they might not be the perfect complement to your living room, you have to admit these are pretty fascinating.

Riera’s furniture is certainly not for every home, but there’s something undeniably captivating about it. The pieces are both playful and sinister, celebratory and solemn, and when you look at them, you can’t help but think of humans and their often damaging relationship towards the other animals on Earth. You can see more of Riera’s designs on his website  and Instagram, and if you know someone in the market for a new chair, you can always share this article with them — but you probably shouldn’t expect a giant toad to show up in their living room.

Riera creates these massive chairs that look like the bodies — or at least the partial bodies — of animals.

They are, to say the least, rather strange.

Each piece is manufactured to order, and on average, 480 hours are spent creating just one.

The chairs are made of a high-density polyurethane, which is very durable, and inside, each one has a metal frame for extra support.

What's more, no two are ever alike. The coding that determines their color is unique to each piece, so while the shapes will be the same, the color or color combination never will be.

So...with all this labor involved, why would anyone do this?

For Riera, this series is an homage to nature and the many forms it takes.

Riera took inspiration from each of the animals featured in the collection, using his own feelings about them, as well as cultural associations and scientific information.

Plenty of time and care was spent to create an accurate portrayal of the animals' unique characteristics, shapes, and textures.

They also make us think, uncomfortably, of trophy walls and taxidermy. They make us aware of the way humans that have exploited animals, and how we should be protecting and not damaging our planet.

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Bizarre Shoes Made from Dead Animals

 This bizarre range of shoes may make the owner feel like they have one foot in the grave.

Crafted from dead animals, Iris Schieferstein's outlandish designs fetch up to £3,900 ($5,051.94 U.S. dollars), and have proved a hit with extreme dressers such as Lady Gaga.

Some of the most controversial pieces include a pair of sandals sporting stuffed doves with their wings spread wide and a collection of heels fashioned from hollow horse hooves.

The 45-year-old designer, from Berlin, Germany, collects carcasses from her local butcher which are discarded after the meat is used for sausages.

She spends a week stripping out any remaining meat and bones from the animal's feet and the skin is sent to a tanner to be treated for preservation.

The sculptor then sets the skin - complete with fur still in place - around a shoe model before hand-stitching insoles and lining.

She said: 'Creating the shoes is ugly work, taking the meat out is not nice, like any taxidermy.

'When I began working with dead animals I would pick them up from the street.

'But they are protected by the government in Germany, and so after ten years they tried to put me in prison. Now I use my butcher.'

The horse boots feature horse fur, a zip up the front, an intact hoof and horse bone as a heel.

While a pair of snakeskin stilettos feature a replica pistol as a heel with the reptile seemingly eating its own tail.

Describing her inspiration Ms. Schieferstein added: 'I love horses and I love shoes so I thought this would be perfect.

'Horses have a beautiful walk and I wanted to recreate that with my footwear.'

The footwear has been displayed at numerous exhibitions around the world and have even inspired a range from Dolce & Gabanna.

Despite the high price tag the footwear can only be worn for several hours at a time before becoming too uncomfortable.

Ms Schieferstein said: 'As yet no company has been willing to produce them for the high street.'

Last year the artist made a pair of custom-fit shoes for Lady Gaga.

                          Extreme dressing: A pair of shoes featuring cream horse fur with a front zip and bone heel

   Suffer for your art: The heels can only be worn for several hours at a time before becoming too uncomfortable

                             Macabre: This pair of snakeskin heels show a snake seemingly eating its own tail

Some of Iris Schieferstein's most controversial designs include a pair of sandals sporting stuffed doves

Sculptor and artist Iris Schieferstein has been using dead animals for her works, here she models a hat made from a dead bird


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