Taxidermy

Taxidermy, a term that is used to deem a process of recreating an animal by means of using wax, leather, prepared fur and so forth, is something being used more and more within the museum and zoo institutions. I believe that this is changing the way we will learn about animals. There are both good and bad sides.

Taxidermy is great for learning the way that an animal is built. I say this because the whole idea of having taxidermy is to re-create animals and make them look realistic, therefore I believe that you can only do such a thing only with having research about the specific animal. Not only that but it allows people to look and see how large the animal is in comparison to themselves.

Yet, I believe that the downfall to taxidermy is that the person who recreates this animal, recreates it in their favor. Meaning that the animal only looks as the creator perceives the animal. And although the creator of the taxidermy animal has or hasn't done the research about the animal, there is still something very much false about the ideas of this. The animal is stuck in a position that may or may not faithfully represent it. This is also something that has created a whole industry with the fur, the substance that is put into the taxidermy animal. And also, where does the fur come from? I believe it would have to come from live animals , which would mean that animals are being killed still for their fur. Which leads to moral and ethical questions such as "Is making a taxidermy animal damaging the ecological system and promoting animal exploitation and extinction?"