I can’t believe I never heard about the Torrington Gopher Hole Museum before today (thanks, metafilter). Not only does this place feature three things I love – dioramas, taxidermy, and animals in costumes – but apparently it was the focus of a PETA protest back when it opened in 1996. When the museum founders responded to PETA’s letters with a postcard saying, “Get stuffed,” newspapers around the world picked up on the story. I can’t believe I slept through all this.
Apparently the issue is still riling people up; when the student paper for the University of Calgary wrote a story about the museum, it received the following complaint:
I was seriously offended to see a gopher representing my profession…not only because gophers in and of themselves are the pride of the Praires, but also because it undermines the skill required to be a blacksmith since it is common knowledge that gophers couldn’t possibly have the mental capacity to perform such tasks. In fact it borders on defamation of a blacksmith’s character. We ask that the proprietor remove at least the blacksmith gopher from her collection. Clearly the RCMP gopher has been appropriately depicted, and possibly the reverend as well.
Okay, whoever wrote that was obviously joking around; it was signed “Rusty Brown” which is a suspicious name if I’ve ever heard one. Then there was the following comment:
the brilliance of a stuffed gopher can never be underscored. think of the tragedy that noah faced with the arc and yet here they immortalize the most dispised rodent on the prairies. this is where the underdog is transformed to immortality by the skill of the taxidermists hand and the the careful display by the curators who willl be blessed in gopher heaven
if i could be stuffed i would. if i could be a care free gopher who can copulate 20 hours a day so be it that i might be in the pantheon
At this point, I think I’m even more amused by the University of Calgary student body than I am by a trailer full of taxidermied ground squirrels. Maybe amused isn’t the right word here. One thing is for sure – I need to go up to Torrington, and on the way I either need to take a detour to the UC campus or give it a very wide berth.
Photo by smithco on flickr
