If anyone protests this place, I hope they also protest OMSI.

Yay more blogtown vegan baiting.

Something about taxidermied little fish/animals appeals to me aesthetically, but I can't really think of any reason this is ethically different from large game trophies, which I'm guessing most of Paxton's clientele would feel was tacky at best, and properly associated with redneck stereotypes of cruelty and ignorance at worst.

I'm gonna need some documentation from them, as I only buy free-range taxidermied baby chicks.

@ Sarah, I think there's a difference there, and it's KINDA similar to the Zoo conundrum. If we agree there are times and places where animal suffering is outweighed by what we feel are effective ways to get kids interested in animal issues, science, etc., it's still a far leap from "everyone should have taxidermied animals in their homes as decorations, and if you think otherwise you're anti-science."

Let's imagine stuffed dead chicks becomes THE home decor thing thanks to Paxton - when Paxton drastically ramps up killing and stuffing baby chickens to meet demand, can't we say that's morally different than what OMSI has done, or what the Zoo does?

N. Mississippi just jumped the shark

@CC: The Oregon Zoo probably does more to protect animals and educate the populace than any other single organization in the PNW. The amount of stewardship displayed by the staff there is amazing.

(disclosure: I'm a zoo member and FUCKING LOVE THE ZOO!)

Also; if I can get tacky taxidermy for cheap, then everyone is getting tacky taxidermy for the holiday-present-giving-time-event this year.

ummm you don't eat stuffed animals so i don't see how vegans come into it...

List of other places selling DEAD ANIMALS on Mississippi:
Every place that serves food, including the convenience store.

You'll need a lot of paint.

...am I a bad vegan because I like stuffed dead things? And hats that feature muskrat skulls?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/55792715/handm…

(shameless plug for my friend that makes such hats)

So is this the store where I can purchase my long awaited Polar Bear skin blanket!?

I'm going to put this in the "I want a new, ethically problematic bauble, but I don't want to do any work to get it" pile.

I mean, the whole point of creepy taxidermy is that you have some connection to the animal, either you killed it or owned it or at least found it by the side of the road. Or all three.

I get my stuffed baby chickens with the old ways: mud, a sharp stick, guts up to my elbows. As men once did.

As a vegan, I....

Oh this makes me so happy! I used to live about 6 blocks from the SF store. Now if we can import a Borderlands bookstore too I will never ever leave Portland again.

Awesome! This will save a ton in shipping.

@ Graham, I'm with you on the Zoo, I just think the comparison is valid, and I respect the points made by the anti-Zoo folk.

@ TSW, I see an ethical difference between eating animals for food and having them killed to decorate your apartment, but I'm in already in the minority.

Can we agree that the debate over fur as fashion is basically the same debate as Paxton presents?

@CC,
Perhaps. But using Anonymous's standard, all fall under the category of "dead animal for amusement."

Fur as fashion is deplorable but even more so triggers my class bias. Coming from Wisconsin, a state big on outdoor sport, I can accept taxidermy as a pride-laden adjunct to hunting culture. But something about stuffed baby chicks rubs me the wrong way. Then again, those chicks will eventually be stored along their berthren in flithy tight quarters then slaughtered so....maybe it's a mercy killing?

The bigger issue is I can't stop thinking "Paxton Gate" refers to a scandal involving Bill Paxton, and how I would hate to have to re-think my enjoyment of Big Love, Aliens and Weird Science.

When I was a kid I had a taxidermied seagull as a toy. I have been vegan for the last 11 years. With those qualifications in mind, I would just like to say, stores like this are ridiculous wastes of space. This kind of product fetishizes nature and reinforces a conservative idea of the dominion over animals as man's god-given right. Fetishizing nature is not helpful to environmental causes and can have an opposite, detrimental effect on our culture's relationship with nature.

It also speaks to the current trend of throwback Victorian exoticization (ahem, steam punk, vintage girls wearing furs, et al) that leads down an inevitable road to racism and division.


Fuck that.

lol racism

* groans *

Fucking hell, can we have keyboard cat play us out here?