Mum turns pet into real-life piggy bank with hole in spine and stopper on bum

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    A mum has turned a dead piglet into a real-life piggy bank equipped with a hole in its spine that acts as a coin slot, and a cork stopper in its behind so the money doesn't fall out.

    Former hairdresser Rachel Lewis cooked up the wild idea after she ditched the scissors and took a class in taxidermy, before eventually setting up her new venture Copper State Taxidermy.

    After hatching the idea about a year ago, she set about creating the strange item last month and eventually sold the stillborn piglet for $750 (roughly £590)

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    The 38-year-old said it was more 'labour intensive' than her usual $350 (around £275) piglets due to the fact that she needed to cut the carcass in half, scoop out the insides and varnish it.

    Married to a hunter, Rachel was used to helping him clean the skulls of animals and said she'd dreamt of being a mortician from a young age.

    Despite acknowledging the young animals' deaths as 'sad', she claims taxidermy helps to give the animals a second life, especially to owners who 'fall in love' with them.

    The piggy bank has been in high demand with a queue of people pre-ordering them and Rachel saying she will even keep one for her kids who also 'fell in love' with putting coins inside it.

    Rachel, from Chandler, Arizona, US, said: "I thought a piggy bank would be really cute to do. There will be more piggy banks coming.

    "I have a larger pig that I plan on doing as a piggy bank too. I'll definitely keep one for me and my kids to keep."

    After helping her hubby clean skulls from hunting, Rachel became fascinated with taxidermy and took her first class in 2019.

    Rachel said: "My husband is a hunter and he also cleans skulls for other hunters. I've helped him with that and I always wanted to be a mortician growing up.

    "When I was helping him with the skulls, I decided to take a taxidermy class. I kind of fell in love with the process."

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    She said she gets her materials from local farms around her area that have 'farm deaths'.

    "Unfortunately, I guess it happens a lot with pigs and goats that there are stillborns," she explained. "I think with pigs a lot of the time their mother rolls over and crushes them.

    "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."

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    • money
    • Animals
    • United States

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