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I\u2019ve always been obsessed with animals.<\/p>\n
We had pets growing up and I was also fascinated by caterpillars. Even had a woodlouse called Tony.<\/p>\n
He died when I was eight, so I made him a coffin out of cardboard with a gold nail varnish cross on it.<\/p>\n
Almost 30 years on, he\u2019s still in there, resting on a silk lining. My prized possession. But he\u2019s not the only creature I\u2019ve gone on to preserve.<\/p>\n
Growing up, my mum used to take me to the museum every weekend in Cardiff to see the taxidermy Natural History display.<\/p>\n
You may think that\u2019s a little strange \u2013 that most kids would rather go to the zoo \u2013 but I found it so interesting to get up close with the animals\u2019 fur and teeth.<\/p>\n
By the time I was a teenager, I was reading books about taxidermy and when I was 18 I used those books to stuff a dead mouse.<\/p>\n
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My mum\u2019s kitchen table became my work top (of course I put a bin bag on top of it to keep it as clean as possible). Then, with a surgical scalpel I\u2019d bought from a craft shop, I got started.<\/p>\n
I stuffed the mouse with cotton wool and gave him little glass beads I had lying around for eyes. Though it only took a couple of hours it was a lot harder than I\u2019d imagined.<\/p>\n
Even after he dried out he looked so much worse than when I first started. I can\u2019t say I was proud of my work, but he was quite cute so I kept him on a shelf for years \u2013 until he was eaten by moths, that is.<\/p>\n
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From then on I used to practise in secret. It was nothing more than a hobby on the side of my art practice.<\/p>\n
But in 2010 things took a turn after I bought a fox that had been caught in a bear trap.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll admit, when I first opened the package \u2013 which amounted to a plastic picnic cooler and around 50 layers of cling film, a layer of bin bags and sellotape \u2013 the smell was really bad. Really<\/em> bad.<\/p>\n Like a strong musky odour mixed with off meat and an old bin.<\/p>\n Many would have considered it past the point of taxidermy, but I\u2019m glad I persevered because that fox has a better life than I have.<\/p>\n After working on him for a couple of months I sold him for \u00a3330 to a guy called Mike Boorman on eBay and then, out of nowhere, the listing went viral. I had sold mice here and there, but he was the first thing that made a bit of money.<\/p>\n Photos of the fox circulated on Facebook and Reddit before blowing up in Russia where he\u2019d been turned into a meme.<\/p>\n I was even asked to go to Russia on a press tour to do an exhibition with the fox so people could take photos with him. And while that trip was fun, it also had its share of bumps.<\/p>\n There were protests outside the exhibition daily and St Petersburg officials tried to ban me and the fox from the city, saying I needed to be arrested and disease-tested.<\/p>\n People were saying I was a spy for MI5, that he was a dirty weapon.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I wasn\u2019t expecting the exhibition to be very popular, but thousands came to see the fox. I didn\u2019t even think the fox was very good. When I made him I had a vision of how he would turn out, but he didn\u2019t end up like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n I had to have an armed guard and he was displayed behind bullet proof glass. The whole thing was surreal.<\/p>\n Protesters tried to enlist animal rights organisations but I explained that I had been a vegetarian for 22 years and that I don\u2019t even wear leather.<\/p>\n I thought it was all a joke, even when I started getting death threats from hundreds of people. It hadn\u2019t even occurred to me that they could be real. Who would risk taking someone\u2019s life or going to prison over a taxidermy fox?<\/p>\n The fox is a very special animal in Russian folklore but I still can\u2019t really understand it.<\/p>\n While my adventures seemingly ended there, Mike then took the fox skydiving over Moscow and on a trip to Ibiza. He even took the fox to Creamfields festival where Calvin Harris and Fatboy Slim took pictures with him.<\/p>\n Things did calm down for a while and in 2012, I decided to try taxidermy professionally and joined the guild of taxidermists where I was the only woman.<\/p>\n Admittedly, I only lasted a year with the organisation \u2013 a lot of those guys would hunt for the animals so they got the best specimen, which is the opposite of what I do \u2013 but it hasn\u2019t stopped me.<\/p>\n I use bashed up animals that would otherwise end up in landfill or be incinerated by the council, and I make something of them.<\/p>\n Usually, I find the animals online \u2013 people either donate them or sell them \u2013 and they get sent to me in the post.<\/p>\n Many think what I do is disgusting, and I get quite a lot of hate and aggression online from people who think I am abusing animals.<\/p>\n People have said horrible stuff. One person threatened to get a pack of dogs to assault my mum.\u00a0<\/p>\n I asked if they were having a hard time because that\u2019s not very nice, and they told me they had lost their own mum and were really angry and they apologised.<\/p>\n Of course, anyone who knows me knows how much I love and respect animals. I couldn\u2019t even kill a spider.<\/p>\n I feel an enormous responsibility towards the animals I work with. Whenever I receive a new animal to work on, I feel a bit sad \u2013 like I\u2019m mourning them. You only get one shot and I want to do the best job I can to honour them.<\/p>\n Early on, I work in silence to be respectful. But later, as the animals are mounted and their personality comes back, I end up talking to them.<\/p>\n I say good morning to them when I walk past them and the people who buy them say the same. They are so lifelike, they end up being part of the family.<\/p>\n When working on them, I try to go with as little clothing as possible, but if they have lost some fur or have an injury, I might hide it with a jacket.\u00a0<\/p>\n The process feels like a collaborative effort; I just feel like I\u2019m moving things around until it feels right. There is a moment I will be trying different expressions and one of them will feel right and the animal comes back to life.<\/p>\n What I actually do is also much less gory than preparing a steak or squid to eat. There\u2019s hardly any blood.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, this is my job, my 9-5 and for the most part, my work is fairly normal.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2020 a goat I made, called Billy, also went viral. I found out he was being shared in WhatsApp groups in Morocco, Argentina and Brazil alongside a rumour that he was Satan brought to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then it became this creepy meme and loads of big accounts shared it, including Lil Nas X.\u00a0<\/p>\n People were asking if it\u2019s a skin walker \u2013 a harmful witch that can possess you or turn itself into an animal. I still get messaged every day about the goat. People send me photos and prayers and theories about him.<\/p>\n Some of it is quite funny, but I also get messages from children saying they are too scared to sleep because they think the goat is going to come and get them. <\/p>\n I reply saying: \u2018He lives in Texas with a woman and four dogs. He\u2019s not going to get you.\u2019<\/p>\n Rest assured, I am not a member of the Illuminati, I am not a freemason, I am not in a cult and I did not summon Billy from Hell. I just love my job.<\/p>\n As for the original fox, I managed to buy him back for around \u00a31,000 and have just finished restoring him. It feels really good to have him home.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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