Warning: dead mice in decorative form. If you disapprove of this concept on principle, please peruse some of the other new Instructables instead.
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Signing UpStep 1Learn Mouse Taxidermy
This Instructable will provide the extra steps necessary to create conjoined mice.
An aside:
If you're ethically opposed to the concept of creative and/or decorative taxidermy (and have chosen to look anyway) I have two questions for you: do you wear leather, and do you eat meat? If you answered yes to either, can you/would you kill and prepare the animals necessary to procure this meat and leather? Willfully ignoring the source of your food and clothing hypocritically outsources the ethical questions and is ultimately disrespectful to the animals involved. If you're an ethical vegan and eschew leather, I respect your opinion and your desire to avoid viewing discomfiting images. Thus I carefully label the Intro page of these Instructables, hide the more graphic pictures on the later pages, and promise not to send you any taxidermy for Christmas.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled Instructable.
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-The mice are already dead and bought at a store, it's not they they hit them with a hammer and used them just for this.
- The mouse doesn't care.
- Some humans even want to be made into art like this, and they can. I', sure you guys have heard of those body galleries.
People have different opinions on this, and thats fine. Let's just not be so didsrespeactfil. If you don't like it, you should quitely leave.
What is the point in teaching a child to fear death? They are going to die some day.
I don't personally do taxidermy, simply because I fear doing a poor job, which is the line I consider to be disrespectful to an animal.
But once a creature is dead, what is the point in letting the creature go to waste?
You are teaching the child that death isn't something to fear, and that all creatures can continue to be useful even after death. How is that a bad thing?
And what if we don't die? What if we find some way to live forever?
We're making the world our trashcans in so many ways. In contrast this is green, like when you kill an animal for one purpose and at least then you use all the parts of it, rather than wasting them. Like how theyr'e trying to recycle chicken feathers into something useful; so we don't just kill them for the meat and then have to find a way to get rid of 60 million cubic yards of waste per year.
I have two questions for you: do you wear leather, and do you eat meat? If you answered yes to either, can you/would you kill and prepare the animals necessary to procure this meat and leather? Willfully ignoring the source of your food and clothing hypocritically outsources the ethical questions and is ultimately disrespectful to the animals involved.
Do you? Before insulting this instructable, maybe you should think about it. Here, let me do your thinking for you, if you cant.
These mice were already dead, in a pet shop. Yes? Yes.
Two things could happen. One, is the DEAD mouse is bought. The other is that it rots in a trash can. Which is more disrespectful to the mouse? Rotting? Yes, I agree.
So the more respectful path is that the mouse is bought. Now, two things can happen. One, the mouse is left to rot/thrown away. Or it is used. Which is more disrespectful? Rotting? Again, I agree.
Now, three things could happen. The mouse could be eaten by the person (D:), eaten by their pet, or used in some way. I'm pretty sure we both agree using the mouse is the most respectful.
So, you can use the mouse in two ways. Use it in taxidermy, or bury it.
I finalize my argument with why the mouse SHOULD NOT be buried.
1. Burial is a religious rite, mainly. I HIGHLY DOUBT that mouse was Christian/Jewish/Islamic/whatever, and thus would take offense. Feel free to prove me wrong on this case, but I doubt I will see any tangible evidence.
2. Mice carry parasites and diseases. Even if your pet can deal with these (e.g. millions of years of evolution has allowed it to grow protections against these diseases), then its fine for your pet. But birds and earthworms and other animals which use your "burial site" for food or shelter can contract these diseases/parasites and die.
3. Rotting. Don't pretend your burial will stop the mouse from rotting, unless you bury it Egyptian mummy style (which is basically taxidermy anyways). Unless you bury your little friend 6 feet under in a metal coffin, expect things you may not want showing up at the surface, like fungi, maggots, flies, and all the other lovely things that come with dead, rotting animals.
if you have any valid arguments against me, feel free to, but I wont listen unless you actually have a point beyond "ugh how crul and dasrespectfuo!!1"
(Hope this was a valid argument even though I'm not really trying to pick sides.)
The typical human burial is more than enough to prevent most of the problems I mentioned. On the religious point, your grandma would probably have said how she wanted to be buried.