Arkansan turns taxidermy work into starring role

Freeze-drying pets is all part of plot for American Stuffers

Taxidermist Daniel Ross, who will star in his own reality show, adjusts wires that hold a deceased pet dog he freeze-dried at his shop in Romance.
Taxidermist Daniel Ross, who will star in his own reality show, adjusts wires that hold a deceased pet dog he freeze-dried at his shop in Romance.

— Romance is back in the news but not because of the White County town’s popular postal stamp for Valentine’s Day. This time, the story is a taxidermist who freeze-dries pets and soon will have his own reality television program.

American Stuffers starring Daniel Ross, the owner of Xtreme Taxidermy in Romance, will debut Thursday at 9 p.m. on the Animal Planet network. Other cast members will include Ross’ wife, LaDawn, his three sons and customers who have taken their pets - from cats and dogs to scorpions and snakes - to him for preservation.

The hour-long, weekly program also will feature Ross’ conventional taxidermy on wild game such as deer, elk and a 13-foot alligator.

A big part of the program’s“drama,” Ross said, will be the pet preservation, which he didn’t begin until about four years ago, in part because he lacked the appropriate equipment and training.

“Instead of putting someone’s trophy on the wall, you’re talking about someone’s family member,” Ross said. “These people are really attached. They call me, and they’re crying on the phone; they’re heartbroken.”

Ross, who has preserved about 100 dogs and cats, started freeze-drying pets after a Heber Springs man called him about Lady, a tan Chihuahua mix, who died after about 17 years.

“He was ... just begging, ‘Please, can you get my dog preserved? There’s no way I’m going to bury it,’” Ross, 35, recalled.

“I started doing some research and figured out howto do it. ... I took [the dog] to Michigan, and I went to a school on pet preservation” and learned the freeze-drying process.

“I first thought I would be doing a lot of little, cute Pomeranians. ... and we do do some of those,” Ross said. “But there’s a lot of mixedbreed dogs out there that have just become a part of the family.

“So it’s not a matter of breeding, or even if you’ve got money or not. [It’s] because people in all walks of life have a huge attachment to their pets. ... It’s about love for their pets.”

Speaking of money, Ross charges by the pet’s size - the bigger, the higher the price. A typical Chihuahua would cost about $500 to freeze-dry, he said.

The cost increases for certain positions - standing, for instance - because it’s harder to fashion a dead dog or cat standing.

“A lot of people have them laying down in their resting position,” Ross said. “We always tell our customers tobring in a photo of the position they’d like.”

Ross declined to release the names of any of his petowner clients but said pets to be featured on the TV program include “a little Yorkie that was attacked by a hawk.”

Ross has freeze-dried more unusual pets, too - tarantulas, scorpions, lizards, snakes, a raccoon and a 5-foot-long iguana.

His resume also includes a freeze-dried screech owl given to former President BillClinton that is now stored in the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock, Ross said.

Unlike mounting, in which only an animal’s skin is preserved, the entire animal is preserved in freeze-drying, with one exception. If the customer wants the pets’ eyes open, they are replaced with glass eyes because natural eyes contain a lot of fluid, Ross explained.

Ross believes freeze-drying creates a more natural, realistic look for a pet than conventional taxidermy.Freeze-dried pets should not be exposed to too much moisture or heat. Some clients put them in glass containers.

Ross’ customers come from nearby and far away.

“I’ve had dogs in my freezers ... from New York to Los Angeles,” he said. “[Recently], I got a call from a guy in Anchorage, Alaska, who wants a black husky freeze-dried.”

While most taxidermists choose not to freeze-dry pets, they will refer customers to taxidermists who do, said John Janelli, vice president of the National Taxidermists Association.

Janelli said he is excited about the Animal Planet program.

“Anything that portrays our industry even in a remotely positive light is lightyears ahead of its time,” Janelli said by telephone from New Jersey.

“We just came out of ... an era where it was so politically incorrect ... to want to use dead animals for anything.”

Hollywood hasn’t boosted taxidermists’ image, either.

The late movie director Alfred Hitchcock “portrayed us to be psychopathic homicidal maniacs,” Janelli said.

Hitchcock’s 1960 moviePsycho starred Anthony Perkins as a motel owner and amateur taxidermist who stuffed birds, lived with his mother’s mummified remains and killed a motel guest portrayed by Janet Leigh in a famous shower scene.

One problem with freezedrying animals is that the industrial vacuum required for the process costs $10,000 to $30,000, and that’s usually a rebuilt one, Janelli said.

Further, he said, “Many people expect us to put back the dog or cat’s personality or persona, which is next to impossible” when preserving a pet.

“There are things we can’t duplicate.”

Janelli - who conventionally mounts pets but doesn’t freeze-dry them - said another problem is that pet preservation takes time. Sometimes pet owners change their minds, especially if they get a new pet, and then don’t claim the preserved one, he said.

In any event, Janelli looks forward to seeing Ross on TV.

“The guy sounds real. The guy sounds passionate. It seems to me, he knows what he’s doing,” Janelli said.

Arkansas, Pages 15 on 01/01/2012

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