Some want to keep pets around forever
Tuesday, April 19, 2005 8:43 AM PDT
By Newsday
Printable version
E-mail this articleEvery morning, Rich Mansfield of Aguilar, Colo., greets Randi, his German shepherd-golden retriever mix, with a pat on the head. Then, he carefully moves her to a favorite napping spot in the sun.
Randi never stirs, because she can't: She died more than three years ago, at the ripe age of 15.
As Americans' emotional bond with their animals continues to deepen, so does the desire to stay connected to them even after they have passed. But for some, that tasteful cremation urn on the fireplace mantle just doesn't cut it. So they turn to companies such as Mansfield's Pet Preservation Specialist (www.petpreservations.com), which use "freeze-dry taxidermy" to maintain their animal's presence, however stationary.
"I do an average of one animal a day, mostly cats," says Mansfield, who has freeze-dried everything from raccoons to lizards. "The only thing I don't do are fish. I don't know why, but fish just don't come out right."
In freeze-drying, an animal's internal organs are removed, the cavity is filled with wood fiber, and the body arranged in the desired position. Mansfield, who has been doing this 13 years, says the freeze-drying process takes an average of 45 days. An animal that is particularly large or has a lot of body fat might take longer.
Mansfield charges $580 for a cat or dog 10 pounds or less, including return shipping. Birds start at around $200. Randi, who weighed 105 pounds, would have cost $1,400 to $1,600 to preserve, he estimates. (Today, in her current form, she weighs only about 10 pounds.)
While traditional taxidermy would seem a logical choice for those who want to preserve a furry friend, it turns out that what works for Bambi doesn't always translate to Fido.
"I get a great number of calls" about taxidermy for household animals, "and more in recent years, maybe because of the aging of America. Older people seem more attached to their pets," says taxidermist George Roof of The Good Stuff Taxidermy in Magnolia, Del. "I always flatly state I won't do it."
The main reason is impracticality. Taxidermy uses mass-produced armatures over which the skin is placed; custom-making a form for an individual animal is not only expensive but time consuming.
Roof also refuses for philosophical reasons.
"If you shoot a big buck and bring it to me, all you knew were the horns," he says. "But if you have a dog who sat at the foot of your bed, and woke up in the morning and looked at you with those big soulful eyes, you knew this animal personally. And we just can't put that sparkle back."
This is precisely why Mansfield urges customers to pose their animals as if asleep, as he did with Randi.
"We have 390 different shades of brown eyes," he says, "but when you come into the room and the pet's staring, that's not how they were in life."
Some customers, he adds, are thinking a step ahead when they have their animals preserved, planning to be buried with them when their own time is up.
However indelicate a metaphor, Roof compares freeze-drying to making jerky. Some other household animals, he adds, may not see the distinction and could indulge in some literal ear-nibbling.
Owners who want their animals freeze-dried need to have them frozen as soon as possible after death. Veterinarians often have the facilities to do this, Mansfield notes. But customers with small animals sometimes just utilize the family freezer.
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