- I usually wear gloves when I work on larger animals,
but with birds, they're so delicate,
it helps to be able to feel where I'm sticking my hands.
(playful music)
- [Jay] Mickey Alice Kwapis knows
that she does not fit most people's idea
of what a taxidermist looks like.
She is trying to change that.
And she knows that, for most people, this part of taxidermy,
when the insides of an animal are being removed,
is the toughest to watch.
But once the skin is empty and being stuffed,
it begins to look almost like a plush doll.
- I definitely have learned a lot more about animal anatomy
than I ever thought that I would,
originally wanting to be a visual artist
and then becoming a taxidermist.
- [Jay] Mickey Alice Kwapis has taxidermied parakeets
and squirrels, and many other mammals, birds, and reptiles.
(playful music)
Mostly she sticks with smaller animals
because she does the work in her apartment.
She doesn't do hunting trophies,
but has acquired a few along the way
as part of a distinctive collection.
- And this is the stitch
that you would use on any animal,
from sewing up a baby mouse to a giraffe.
- So how far between stitches?
And she teaches taxidermy, mostly to millennial women,
but occasionally to an aging reporter.
So about there?
She's teaching more than just taxidermy technique.
She wants to share her love of animals
and respect for nature.
- I grew up with my mom working on a petting farm
when I was a kid.
And so everything that's alive has to die eventually
and it was always just like this really sad thing
where we just had to bury them and that was it.
And now I don't know if some of my passion
for this work stems from that.
- [Jay] Mickey got the idea to try taxidermy
when a friend asked for help
with a science class dissection.
With guidance from YouTube videos,
her first attempt was this rat.
- ...And it doesn't look that bad,
but I got all the way done
and realized I didn't have any eyes to put in it.
So that's why it's curled up sleeping.
I went to an estate sale
and there were squirrel sized dresses
and I bought all of them.
(playful music continues)
- [Jay] When Mickey started out,
she would never have put a squirrel in a dress.
- I wanted to do anatomically accurate taxidermy
and I thought that the anthropomorphic taxidermy
was tacky or kitschy,
but the more anthropomorphic taxidermy that I made
and took to various art shows that I was doing,
the more I was able to connect with people
who thought taxidermy was gross or barbaric or unnecessary.
- [Jay] Both of Mickey's grandfathers were Michigan hunters.
She still has the head of the bear
that one grandfather bagged before she was born.
Mickey does not kill any animals for her taxidermy.
Still, she feels inspired
by her bear-hunting grandfather's philosophy.
He wouldn't waste anything.
- He wasn't a trophy hunter.
He kept a small relic of this experience
that was like a once in a lifetime experience,
but he made his family eat the whole bear.
And so that's kind of where my mentality
of wasting nothing came from.
My freezer is in my room.
- Mickey coined the term sustainable taxidermy
and is very careful about where she gets her animals.
Some died in pet stores, some are trapped as pests
and would otherwise be disposed of,
and some come from people who hunt for food.
She skins the animals, and sends back the meat.
(playful music)
There may be another reason why people are often surprised
that Mickey Alice Kwapis is a taxidermist.
Not only is she a young, non-hunting woman,
she is also quite sunny.
And she says people seem to think of taxidermy as dark
and all about death.
- [Mickey] I know that what I do is odd,
but my goal is to normalize it
because taxidermy is so important for education,
for conservation, for protecting our wildlife.
I hope that I can get other people involved in it too.