It’s hard to let go when a beloved pet dies, but one way to keep your much-missed companion with you for the rest of eternity has always split animal-lovers down the middle: taxidermy. Some find the act of stuffing a pet healing and comforting while others consider it eerie, unsettling, and downright icky. This age-old argument played out in microcosm when one young woman’s pet turtle died and her parents decided to turn it into a paperweight.
TikTok user @katieparkker revealed what became of her chelonian chum in an amusing/alarming video in which she waved his starched corpse around like a frisbee. “When you turtle d*es so your family stuffs him,” Katie shared in her caption. We’re not entirely sure how Katie feels about this, but going by her expression we’re guessing she’s still a little… shell-shocked (is it too soon for turtle puns? It’s too soon, isn’t it?).
“Phil will be missed i guess,” she added, in the video’s description. R.I.P. Phil, may your removed innards rest in piece.
Stuffing a cat or a dog or even a bird is a fairly common procedure for a taxidermist, but few have heard of doing the same to a turtle before, so Katie’s video is leaving the taxidermic newbies of TikTok scratching their heads — in more ways than one. “How do you even taxidermy a turtle???” one commenter quizzed, while another is wondering why Phil died in the first place: “Wait how old was he cos they are meant to live ages.”
Phil’s fate even led to a wider discussion around the pros and cons of taxidermy, and going by this thread most people are on the thumbs-down side. “I don’t get why people do that, let the poor animals rest in peace,” opined one naysayer, before someone else alluded to their own personal horror story: “And with my dog I was traumatised.” Clearly, parents stuffing their children’s pets without their consent is an epidemic that needs to stop.
Others, meanwhile, don’t fully grasp what’s going on here. “omg is the turtle ok?” someone asked innocently, and guys, how do we tell them? Those in the replies to this comment couldn’t resist poking some fun: “yeah gang, he’s just taking a silent and longg nap,” reads one response, as another quipped, “Let’s just say he’s feeling stuffed.”
Someone else asked a very salient question when it comes to turning your turtles into ornaments: “How do you know when your turtle is dead?” Well, just in case any wannabe taxidermists are reading this, the most obvious sign that you’ve got an ex-turtle on your hands is when your tortoise has lost its poise.
According to PangoVet, the first thing to note is if your turtle’s head and limbs are completely out of its shell and hanging limp. To be sure, you may also want to check its reaction to stimuli, whether it’s cold to the touch, or if it doesn’t respond to heat. If nothing works, then unfortunately you may have lost a pet, but on the upside, you might just have gained a neat knick-knack.