New Jersey Woman Displays Her Dead, Stuffed Pets

Taxidermy Collectors Marvel at Donkey, Iaguana's Eyes

A New Jersey woman celebrated her 60th birthday by unveiling a collection of almost two dozen dead pets - all preserved for the ages through taxidermy. The showing at a gallery in Princeton includes 13 cats, five dogs, a parrot, a pair of white mice, an iguana and a small donkey.

The Plush Boomer gallery was packed by the curious as well as taxidermy collectors Tuesday night at the opening of the collection assembled by Betty Jo Lawler-Torrington of Pennington, N.J.

Lawler-Torrington, a real estate broker, is the author of the popular book "Preserve Your Pet", published in 1999. The book, which was featured on the Oprah Winfrey television program, recommends pet taxidermy, rather than cremation or burial, for dead pets.

To the surprise of many of the collectors and curious gallery hoppers who attended the opening night festivities, the 23 stuffed pets were for sale and carried price tags that ranged from a low of $650 for one of the cats to $9,000 for the donkey. Gallery owner Janet Sanchez-Diaz reported three sales and "brisk interest" by taxidermy collectors in the dead pets.

"I originally thought I would merely display my collection," Lawler-Torrington said as she welcomed guests to the opening. "But when you get to age sixty you realize it's time to begin letting go of things. So selling my precious ones began to seem like a fitting tribute to their memory."

The gallery's presentation of the dead pets includes a short essay about each pet, displayed next to the pet. Lawler-Torrington said she wrote the essays, "with some help from a newspaper reporter friend."

The essay about Jeb, the donkey, recounts Lawler-Torrington's battle with the Pennington, N.J. board of supervisors in the late 1980s over whether zoning permitted her to keep the donkey in her backyard. Neighbors complained bitterly about the donkey's early morning braying. Lawler-Torrington took the case all the way to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which ruled she could keep the donkey.

Jeb continued to bray at dawn each day in Lawler-Torrington's backyard until his death in 1995. After a taxidermist preserved Jeb, he took up residence in Lawler-Torrington's living room.

One of the attendees at the opening was Edward Latrobe, who writes the weekly taxidermy column in the Newark Star Ledger. "There's some fine examples of contemporary taxidermy here," he said. "I was particularly impressed with the iguana's eyes."

Lawler-Torrington said she regrets that she didn't have "the vision or the money" to preserve her dead pets until she was in her forties. "There's another dozen or so of my cherished ones who aren't with us here tonight," she lamented. April 14, 2004

Copyright 2003-2004 William Stockton & Smithtown Creek Productions
All Rights Reserved
satire | humor | comedy | parody | satirical headlines