I prefer live animals.

"retract from any design?"
You mean detract right?

Personally I think that people who go out and purchase stuffed game animals are people I don't want to hang out with. Squirrels, common birds, things that are not typically hunted for sport I have no problem with.

If my opinion was of any consequence I'd make it a rule that you couldn't display a stuffed animal unless you killed it yourself and ate some portion of it. Or you just found it dead.

I also am of the opinion that this post will devolve into a snarky vegetarian vs. meateater hatefest.

Why go over this again? I have a deer head mount, several sets of antlers, two bobcats and one coyote rug on my walls. I am sure there are people in America who are highly offended by this. The people I know and love to have as guests are not. Interiors should reflect the people who live there. Period.

For me there is something unsettling about a dead animal looming overhead. I'm with pinkalbatross on this one, I prefer live animals

Your house should reflect you and your family and the things you love, like, enjoy.

Personally, it isn't a look I like much (and I'm afraid it has reached the eye-rolling level of hipsterness that certain mid-century bits of furniture share) - but that is my taste, not anyone else's.

Your home should make you happy. Who cares what some random stranger on the internet thinks?

I have never been a fan of animal heads or hides as decor and it really has nothing to do with my love of animals. I just don't find them attractive, but to each their own.

for me, no. dead animals in my house is something i find gross.

I enjoy how found antlers (or faux antlers made from branches) or faux taxidermy adds depth to a wall. I don't like real dead animals as I think dead animals on a wall (or on the floor) is in poor taste.

Personally, I don't care for it and don't really want to look at it on the site, but thankfully we don't get to vote on what other people keep in their homes. (I'd hate to think what my house would look like!)

I love animals, I’m a strict vegetarian, and I have quiet an extensive taxidermy collection. I like it. I think it adds to my space. That being said I am trying to pair down a bit. My house is starting to feel like a lodge.

I love it as long as it isn't overdone. For instance, I like the example in this article. If someone's house is absolutely stuffed with taxidermy specimens, not so much.

I realize there are different ways these are collected (unethical - hunted and killed just for show) or relatively ethical (eaten for meat in place of factory farmed animals, or someone else's roadkill) but either way it's a dead animal, which is inherently gross both because of the biological material and / or the chemicals to preserve it.

Few people have a problem with leather sofas. That's dead animal, too. As for me, I love taxidermy and my fluffy sheepskin rug.

I don't like taxidermy as a design trend, but I do understand why people who hunt might want to display their trophies. To me, it feels inauthentic if you don't actually hunt. The cardboard taxidermy was whimsical for a while, but I never got into it personally.

This post seems like a clear attempt to pump up comment numbers.

If the poster is interested in what people think about taxidermy all she has to do is check out any of the hundreds of post that contain taxidermy and she will find people shouting their feelings about it.

This is such a divisive issue on AT, why would you stir it up Meg?

i hate taxidermy. i hate it in hunting lodges. i hate it in restaurants. i hate it with modern furniture. it's just tacky and tasteless. while you're at it, you might as well put in an elephant foot umbrella stand:http://www.busaccagallery.com/catalog.php?catid=102&itemid=1651&page=1

Good points from both Emmi and inchbranch.

Ultimately, to each his own.

I share a cabin with my husband's family, and we clashed hard on taxidermy. My husband's father had his prize head, and his wife wouldn't allow it in their home. I wanted to block it from the cabin, but found I couldn't do that reasonably. The only attempt at toning it down was for me to hang a large turtle painting between the heads, but I am offended and disgusted by taxidermy. I wish it weren't in my space, even if it is a cabin.

Urban bias to even assume guests will be offended. It really depends on the cultural context in which you live.

I can appreciate deer antlers in the home of someone who hunts. But I'd rather not see the whole head -- there's something very creepy about feeling like something is staring at you. I am especially disturbed by heads of rare or exotic animals -- then it feels much more like killing for the joy of killing. Deer are beautiful, but I'd rather they die in a humane way and get eaten than get hit by a car.

I'm not a big fan of taxidermy in general but it certainly doesn't offend me. I'm from the South so I guess I'm used to it. That being said, the (exotic to me) specimen in the photo is quite striking in such a stark space.

Also, I agree that it is tacky to display taxidermy if it's not something you killed and ate yourself. Exception given to thrift store / estate sale finds.

@ MiklakMiklak: you said this much more eloquently than I could. When I first read the post I thought: page hit bait.

"Urban bias to even assume guests will be offended. It really depends on the cultural context in which you live."

This.

to each their own and honestly IDGAF either way on dead animals in peoples homes. The comment on leather sofa is dead on as well...

The animals are dead and cannot feel anything. While I don't think it looks nice there are worse things that upsets me more. Like being served endangered food for dinner. Or people destroying old beautiful things for "ironic" impact.

Not a fan myself, but I've seen it done tastefully in certain rooms like the one above. I'm not really into wildlife art either - like the deer eating grass in a meadow kind of stuff you see at Bass Pro Shop. I guess I would rather have huge windows overlooking an actual meadow where I might see live deer eating grass. I like nature, but I don't feel the need to preserve dead creatures in my home.

I'm not a fan just because I think it's ugly, but if others want it in their homes, who am I to judge? I also think cowhide rugs are hideous, but many people love them.

Also, I disagree with the notion that taxidermy should be the sole province of hunters. I don't dip my own candles, but I have lots of those. I don't sculpt or make pottery or paint the art on my walls, but I enjoy decorating with it. If you use taxidermy as a decorative item, there's no reason you should have had to shoot it yourself.

Depends totally on the context, the animal, all that stuff. This is a striking and beautiful animal, and enhances that stark space.
A restaurant with red wallpaper, and dozens of small heads lining the upper walls, not so much. (I won't eat along that highway any more in case I accidentally go there again.)

There has been a big thing for cowhide rugs lately. And I have seen no comments about the dead cows. It must be the eyes?

I don't see this frightening small children, little beasts that they are.

I think it's disgusting to have the bodies of dead animals on display. But, I do feel very nostalgic for the dorky hunting lodges of northern Michigan, which are often festooned with dead deer and moose. As *design*, I think they're totally ugly. I always skip over the home tours that have a dead animal in them. And as a vegetarian, I think they're horribly callous.

"Few people have a problem with leather sofas. That's dead animal, too. "

I think an important distinction needs to be made here, because taxidermy animals are prized for their unaltered or natural appearance.

Leather, as for a sofa, is unhaired, degreased, bleached, tanned, thinned, lubricated, dyed and stretched into a material that typically bears no resemblance to the animal from which it came. The sofa is admired for its color, texture, shape, comfort and craftsmanship. Even though they are both animal parts, they serve two completely different purposes.

My fiance is a big time hunter and we have a couple deet heads on the wall that are very important to him. We do use all the meat and other pieces from what he hunts, however. The heads aren't my favorite, but I have no problem with them. What I do love, though, is "shed racks," or the antlers that you find in the woods that deer have shed each year. These we have all over and they are so fun in many uses.

Growing up in a home where we ate fresh, organic, meat harvested by my Father - the grocery store meat aisle seems more unnatural and disgusting to me than displaying these pieces in your home.

I see the value in these pieces and they are used as art, just like many other things are that others may find "tacky" or "in poor taste".

That is the beauty of art - to each his own.

Love!

I don't want dead animal parts in my house because they would make me feel sad.

I find it creepy to have decapitated animals staring blankly at me. I can't look at them without feeling sad, and a bit repulsed. But then, I wouldn't buy a leather couch (cowhide rugs, sheepskins, etc.) either.

It's gross. I wouldn't bring it into my home. I find faux taxidermy much more interesting.

I LOVE Taxidermy- I have a mounted squirrel in my living room and have been on the hunt for a symmetric buck head (one that's mounted facing forward instead of to one side with symmetrical antlers) for above my bed for months.
However- I totally understand how some people would find it unsettling and don't think any amount of polling is going to change anyone's opinion one way or the other...

this article failed to rile. we're all happy as long as people keep their decor to themselves.

Another taxidermy post? How long is AT going to keep beating that dead horse? ;)

I'm more practical.... have you ever tried to clean a shoulder mount? All that grungy dusty fur. Ew.

We have a European mount elk.... I try to keep a Georgia O'Keeffe-esque feeling about it but it is definitely a compromise for the marriage. I did draw the line about putting it over a bed... one good earthquake and you'd be impaled... that just wouldn't read well in an obit.

I agree that antler sheds are great, but depending on the space, a real animal head (especially if you haven't hunted it) could be a little much.

It's just so freaking ugly to have a dead animal on your wall and unappealing. It's a DEAD animal everyone.

The taxidermy vs leather sofa thing is a bit like not coping with heads on fish or feet on chickens when you eat them, but very happy with minced/ground meat. It doesnt look so much like a dead animal.

Hunting was & can be a contributing factor to endangering many animals, but if it is done ok, at least mounting them is using more than a couple of steak's worth of the animal.

Mind you, I cant stand anything that can look at me, so I wouldnt have it myself...

I have to admit my first taxidermy squirrel was bought in irony... hey it was a long time ago so sue me for enjoying some irony. Over time I have grown to see taxidermy for what it is beautiful animals less for another thing it is corpses. I have amassed quit a collection and a growing respect for the beauty taxidermy can have. I do keep most of my taxidermy in one room of our country house, but really think they look best in smaller doses like above.

I'm dead impressed (ha!) at the level of civility and gracious acceptance of other points of view in this thread.

For the record while I have skulls, feathers, shells and cowhide rugs I don't have any taxidermy... it's so freakin' expensive! But I have a faux deer head that I bought in an art gallery shop in Stockholm.

I think they bring bad luck in the house.

Taxidermy cannot enhance a space from my aesthetic perspective, which is shaped in large part by the culture in which I happened to be raised. OTOH, I don't claim my perspective is superior or that my culture is right. I decorate with killed shells and leather seating, and I wear leather shoes and eat meat, so I can't oppose taxidermy on ethical grounds without hypocrisy. It's good that a person's home is her castle, just keep in mind that some find taxidermy disturbing, just as some find my eating meat and using leather disturbing.

I am not a fan, but that is just because I know that mites and other things can live in those stuffed trophies. Yuck!

Nope-Chuck Testa!

I really have no problem with antlers, horns, most skins ... Things like that. But I really hate the vacant stare of a trophy head. It just looks creepy (and they usually look dusty to me).

I am not a fan of dead animals on the walls and I hate hunters. Killing animals for fun is very wrong IMHO.
On the other hand, I do like faux taxidermy of the current time. I think many items are beautiful and they really enhance the space.

It's a bit much to say that any child would be frightened by taxidermy.

Um, NO, save it for the natural history museums.

I'm not a fan of taxidermy, but I don't abhor it either (unless you are actively killing endangered animals for it). I'm in the "a dead animal doesn't care whether you put it on a wall or let it rot in a field" camp. It's certainly more responsible to thrift old animals or mount things you were hunting anyway (as opposed to buying new animals), though.

The only taxidermy animal I could imagine having personally, though, is an owl. Their eyes are already so black and...flat...that they would strike me as less unsettling than flat-eyed mammals.

I cannot imagine trying to keep such a thing clean, though.

I don't have a problem with it, but it's not something I'd have in my home. It's just not my taste, though I would do skulls of horned and antlered animals.

Once or twice a year I visit a restaurant that's full of taxidermy despite the taxidermy because it's the best BBQ place in my neighborhood. I wouldn't want to sleep there, though.

I'm vegan but ironically I do find something kind of arresting about the visual — from afar. Up close I find taxidermy very, very strange, and ultimately pretty sad. "Look what I killed" is a strange human impulse.

That said, there are some alternatives that give some of the visual impact without actual carcasses. The cardboard ones are kind of pomo and interesting, but a little ... well, flat. Kind of like a chandelier wall decal? I came across these resin molds that come in some "natural" color combos and some HIGHLY unexpected ones, and I really dig them a lot: http://www.etsy.com/shop/NewWoodsman/sold