I have a customer that wants to have his full mount coyote done with his foot in a trap / scene. Are there any suppliers offering a maniken in this pose? If not please give me some opinions on which maniken would be best altered. I am trying to think of ways to best imitate the trap set on the habitat base. I am leaning more toward realism in the disturbed dirt, exposed stake top and torn up grass that is usually present after wiley c. does the curly shuffle when the traps has sprung. Any ideas here would be appreciated also. Thanx
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First rule in taxidermy (or it should be) not to mount an animal in a trap or being hurt in any human way, arrow in the neck etc. Natural selection scenes are an exception because I guess the anti's can allow the torturing of a rabbit by a Lynx. I did have a simular request a few years back. I mounted a Coyote in the position you are looking for. I did not put the trap in the scene, If the client did, well, it's his mount.The form is sold by Jonas ( form # 3-509) and is a good form easy to mount on. Personally, I always try to discurage such mounts.
but I have a different take on this. As long as we hide reality we only foster more shock when it is seen. The truth of the matter is that coyotes are trapped, deer are shot, fish are starved for oxygen. My client obtained this coyote by trapping. It is a big black phase male and he wants to maintain the memory of trapping it. He is an old school trapper of some 40 years and this is the first black phase he has ever caught. As long as we taxidermists, hunters, fishers and sporters kow-tow to the animal rights folks we will never gain any ground. I for one try to make my work as real as I can and trapped coyotes are real. Trapping is ok and in my view so should mounting in this pose. I do however see your point of view but respectfully disagree. Just my opinion and I appreciate your feedback.
I agree with Hoss. I am sick of every one being worried what someone might think. Who cares and tough. There is nothing anyone can do to please the anti kooks. (oh sorry was that offensive to anyone)If someone wants a dead animal mounted a certain way that is what they should be allowed to request.An animal in a trap is in no way any more offensive than a 10 pointer on the wall.Jim, don't get me wrong,It is your choice what you want to do or not to do but to be worried about offending the antis is pointless.
Mount it any way you want.If you don not mount something like that because of people like that THEY HAVE WON!End of story.
Not that money is everything, but i doubt the local paint and body turns down the profit off painting someones car baby poop green..and I persoanlly find that quite offensive. The mount will only be in your possession for a short while, the owner is the one who will have to face whatever ridicule and sarcasim there may be as he/she will have it for years to come.
good luck to you
I respect everyones choice to mount what they want and how they want. If you notice in my first post, I did mount the coyote, I just did not want to be responsible for adding a trap to the scene. I enjoy trapping myself, I am certainly not against it. We all live by our own rules. Anyway, Good luck with the mount, hopfully your coyote will fit that form, it really will make a striking mount!
unless the customer wants it with the trap and make the foot look like the trap caught too high, had no swivels and an extra long chain, as in: the broken bone and bloody look.If it looks nice and clean like it normally does on a trapline, then whats so bad about it? I mean wouldn't a hanging dead mount of a turkey also be as offensive to an anti or whatever? How about the rabbit being grabbed by the fox and the taxidermist adds fake blood and tooth marks? What about those mounts like the one in PA of the buck with the mounted/similated recreation of the decaying part of a buck hanging from its antlers, the result of natural lockup? Wouldn't that offend the same people as the trap? Or the griz bear and wolverine fighting over scraps of some recreated bloody carcass?
Thanks all for the opinions and Jim I think I will go with that maniken. I am still looking for ideas on the habitat. If anybody has any I'd be delighted to hear how you would go about creating the scene.
Thanks
YOU ALL NEED A LIFE.
Check out www.peta.org to see why what you are doing is WRONG!
for visiting this site. I hope you visit often. You see the amount of traffic on this site is monitored. The more hits and visits the more advertisers want to be part of this site. The more advertisers and supplier links there are there is more money spent on the taxidermy business. The more money spent means that more animals are killed and mounted. Thank you for being directly responsible for the deaths of who knows how many poor helpless animals. And also thank you for helping my business expand and putting money in my pocket so that I can afford another big game hunt. Your help is truly appreciated.
Jim gives you some good general advice, as we see that rule followed when we have public showings or taxidermy competitions, they discourage such mounts. A proud trappers living room is a whole 'nother story, though. Im not sure Id worry about swivels etc, but a simple layout showing the coyote leaning away from the trap is as accurate as any Ive seen in sets. Laying down with one leg extenbded is an attractive yet accurate pose too. As for the scene, a base with a portion of the "catch ring" present would give the desired effect, complete with a worn out dirt hole, and a partial cable coming out...I doubt anyone still tries to stake a trap for coyotes? As for our peta friend Tracy, did you ever squat over a mirror and look into it? Why dont you SAVE THAT! Now go away.
I appreciate the ideas and opinion. Oh yeah.....plenty of guys still stake traps for yotes.
I winder if Tracy got your point?
Nah, she probably has many points elude her. As for staking...I hadnt trapped in a few years, then got back playing with it a bit, and was surprised by the earth anchors. I love them. Id skip stakes altogether now! No pullouts, frozen stakes holes that they pump out, and cables weigh a lot less. Are you familiar with them? Ill explain if you arent...
I used to do a little trapping myself and still keep up on stuff. We have allot of old timers here that trap not for money but for nostalgic purposes. They are still staking traps at least that is what they are telling me. I was taught by an old long liner and I hated yanking stakes and laying water sets for beaver, muskrats and mink. Have you ever snapped a trap on a cold, wet finger YAWZA! That smarts! Or worse yet have ice cold water fill your waders after stepping in a deep hole in the dark when you are a mile from the truck. BRRRRRR!