By BERNIE HORNICK
SEVEN SPRINGS — When David Houser looks at a stuffed animal, he doesn’t see a bobcat, pheasant or a deer.
He sees art. Modern art.
“It’s more of contemporary art, with the design and composition of how specimens are being displayed,” the Marysville taxidermist said Thursday at the Pennsylvania State Taxidermy & Wildlife Art Championships.
Still, he knows his trade isn’t for everyone.
“If you’re a little queasy on blood, you might be a little put off,” he said Thursday at Seven Springs Mountain Resort, which is hosting the confab.
Hundreds of taxidermists, friends, onlookers and trade representatives are expected for the convention of the Pennsylvania Taxidermist Association, perhaps the largest such association in the nation, with more than 350 members.
One of the growing trends in taxidermy, Houser said, is in preserving family pets.
But you won’t find an Irish setter or a tabby at the taxidermy show. They’re on display at their masters’ homes.
“They get attached to the pet and are not ready to be without it,” Houser said. “That way, they can see their pet every day.”
Houser, an association board member, said he would charge $1,500 to $2,000 to preserve an average-sized dog – though he wouldn’t have his own pet preserved. It’s too costly.
Jason Krause of Pine Grove, north of Scranton, said it’s a different animal – no pun intended – when saving the family pet rather than mounting the popular whitetail deer.
“When it’s a pet, it’s more like being a funeral director, the crying,” he said, recalling some of his experiences. “It’s a whole different situation.”
Dogs and cats are freeze-dried, Krause said, leaving the bones and muscle, unlike wild animals, which are skinned and pulled over a polypropylene form.
“People don’t want to imagine you gutting their pet,” he said. And with freeze-drying, the pet’s exact dimensions are forever preserved.
Krause makes a living at his craft.
He chatted while he brushed a black bear that he had made up. He said that, start to finish, he had put in 40 hours stuffing a bear. He would charge $3,000.
For about $7,900, you can get a life-size bust of an African elephant. And you don’t have to fire a shot.
The reproduction is made by McKenzie Supply Co. of Salisbury, N.C., which is more well-known for selling animal forms to stuffers.
McKenzie representative Chad Davis said the company sells the 800-pound reproduction of the elephant, or a smaller rhino head-and-shoulders, to lodges, museums and individuals.
He said hunters, even if they legally can bag an elephant or rhino, probably wouldn’t be able to bring it back to the United States.
So, they get a reproduction of their kills.
“If a guy can afford to go and hunt elephants, he probably can afford this,” Davis said.
Glad to meet you?
Back at Krause’s table, convention-goers greet him with friendly smiles. When he’s not at a convention, though, reactions to his job are less sure.
“You get one of two reactions. You get, ‘Oh, that’s neat,’ or ‘Ee-oooh,’ he said Friday while brushing a stuffed black bear.
Budding taxidermist Brandi Vansickle, 13, of Farrell gets the same reaction from her friends.
“They think it’s kind of weird because I’m playing with dead stuff,” she said, “but also cool.”
Brandi got into the craft when she asked her dad for the bones of a squirrel he had hunted in order to make a dinosaur.
She’s a natural: The dino turned out great.
