Woman Sells Taxidermy Piglets as Real-Life Piggy Banks

Making actual piggy banks out of baby pigs is one way one lady has managed to make ends meet. Up until four years ago, Rachel Lewis of Chandler, Arizona, worked as a hairdresser before enrolling in a taxidermy course.

Since then, the 38-year-old hasn’t turned around; he now works as a taxidermist full-time. Around a year earlier, she had the thought to turn a piglet into a piggy bank, but she didn’t do anything about it until May 2023.

A long wait has formed to pre-order the strange item, and Rachel has vowed to construct one for one of her daughters who ‘fell in love’ with the idea of placing pennies inside. Rachel had always wanted to be an undertaker since she was a child, and she had previously assisted her hunting husband in cleaning the heads of dead animals.

She believes taxidermy provides animals with a second chance at life, but she acknowledges that the deaths of young animals are “sad.” The mum explained the process and said, “It was really labour intensive to make. Instead of making a traditional foam form it had to be altered, cut in half, hollowed out, and the insides finished.”

“It took a little more planning than a traditional mount,” Added, “I thought a piggy bank would be really cute to do.”

“I tried to figure out how to make it work where it would hold the weight of change and be fully functional,” Added, “I have more than I plan on doing, there will be more piggy banks coming. I have a larger pig that I plan on doing as a piggy bank too.

“I’ve sold other little piglets which I taxidermy for $350. I listed it high because I didn’t mind keeping it, but obviously someone else fell in love with it.”

In addition to describing some of the sources for her pigs, Rachel also discussed how she believes her taxidermy offers the creatures a new lease on life.

“Most of my specimens I get from local farms around me that have farm deaths, so they’re stillborn,” she said, “I’ve got a few. Unfortunately, I guess it happens a lot with pigs and goats that there are stillborn.”

“I think with pigs a lot of the time their mum rolls over and crushes them,” Further added, “It’s sad. The farmers said they would just bury them on the property or that they’d just be waste.”

“I feel like they get to live a second life, especially this little piggy in particular who someone fell in love with. It’s kinda cool.”

Take a look at the video below:

In the future, Rachel hopes to conduct further taxidermy experiments and produce taxidermist items like jewellery boxes or chambers for “secret stashes.”

“I was experimenting with different things that other artists do, like ring boxes or pencil cases and things,’ she said, “Now, my sister and I can do projects like that.”

“We have some ideas to do goat piggy banks. It’s just anything we can really come up with like little hidden compartments in some taxidermy pieces like stash jars or jewellery boxes.” Added, “We definitely have a few things we’re working on right now.”

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