The Animals Of Marathon (Mostly Stuffed)

As I'm sure you picked up from yesterday, today we were in the town of Marathon. We didn't stay long but it was still long enough to find some little, or should I say wild, gems in the lobby of our hotel and in the restaurant. And they were gems within a very different and controversial field that I've never, ever thought of posting pictures of and writing about on this blog: taxidermy.

Indeed, everywhere in Texas so far has had some form of stuffed animal (meaning an actual dead animal not a fluffy toy - the phrase "stuffed animal" has multiple connotations) somewhere, a deer or a bear or a buffalo. Some are stuffed, some are rugs, some are left in the bony state they died in. But they all have one thing in common: they were killed for the decoration value. And do I think that can be justified? Well, that's one of the things that I typed in my iPad passcode to talk about here. And I know this is a boring answer to the question, but I personally think it depends on the animal, the place where the decoration goes and the type of decoration. Whether it's endangered, whether stuffed animals are suitable for the place or occasion and how much pain was inflicted on the animal (for example, having your head chopped off to become a skull on the wall is obviously less painful than being skinned to be a rug - both these taxidermy types and more are in my picture collection further down) are all factors that can be the difference between acceptable and unacceptable, but they're not the most important. What is the most crucial is did the animal die for the purpose? Did a hunter spy him or her (yes, I never say "it" when referring to animals, but that's another post entirely) and think "That'd look good on my wall" and shoot him or her down? Or was he or she already dead, and the hunter just picked the body up? I don't see a problem with the latter, it's just like a non-living decoration. Killed for the purpose? No. Already dead? Sure.

Now I've done my lengthy writing, I thought I'd show you my Taxidermy In Marathon, TX photo collection. There's everything here: reindeer and buffalo heads on the wall, wooden crocodiles (OK, not technically taxidermy but cool though), bearskin rugs, a random bone lying on the table for no apparent reason (?) and my personal favourite, the uncannily-realistic mountain lion sitting on a coffee table that nearly knocked the Taylor Swift-pumping headphones off my ears. Whether these animals were killed for the purpose is another question, and I might never know. But if any of you out there against taxidermy are vomiting at the pictures, I also included an unbelievably cute little dog yapping at me from underneath a table in the breakfast café. I sure hope this little guy never gets stuffed :).

What do you guys think about taxidermy? Don't hesitate to comment!
-DP :)