Yesterday we had another one of those fun photo shoots that Nude Hippo is famous for. The nice people at Noreen Heron & Associates were kind enough to let us use their office for the event, even though they had work to do. And thanks to the people at Chicago Costume we were able to recreate an authentic Thanksgiving feast. Well, if your version of “authentic” includes Pilgrims with guns, blonde Indian maidens, me looking like a demented Barrister who recently escaped from a boy band and pizza. Check out the Gallery later today to see the pics.
Nevertheless, during the shoot yesterday, I found out that Gina Ferraro is not just a sausage lover, she used to be intimately involved in its creation having grown up on a farm that specialized in all things porcine and poultry. While the obligatory sausage inspired sexual innuendos were bandied about, mostly by me since I’m a cad, it got me to thinking; “What do you get someone like that for a holiday gift?”
I mean something that no one else in her life would get her? If you think like me, and many of you have families that are grateful you don’t, you get her a piggy bank.
Made from a real pig.
Larry Knowles from AL News tells about the holiday item that has some people squealing.
Hey, kids, how’d you like to have a piggy bank made from an actual pig?
Well, now you can, courtesy of Vancouver, British Columbia, novelty retailer TheCheeky.com, which is offering authentic taxidermied piglet piggy banks for sale on its site.
And if you start saving now you might be able to afford one by the time you head off to college: the banks run a cool $4,000 each, with buyers required to put half the money up front.
It should be noted, though, that the steep price is because of high production costs. According to TheCheeky co-owner Colin Hart, it takes 12 months to fill an order. First, the company has to find a piglet that has died of natural causes. Then it must have the animal taxidermied, which takes about six months.
To date, the retailer hasn’t actually sold a piglet bank, but Hart told AOL News that TheCheeky has received a huge amount of interest in the past week.
A large part of that interest stems from the outcry the bank created after it appeared in Vancouver magazine’s 2010 Holiday gift guide published in early November. Animal activists quickly noticed and organized a call to action.
Two days ago, the Winnipeg Humane Society posted a message on its site titled “Speak Out Against Taxidermied Piggy Bank.” The society called the piglet bank “a particularly callous and demeaning exploitation of a baby animal’s dead body” and instructed activists to e-mail complaints to Vancouver magazine.
Representatives for the humane society could not be reached for comment.
TheCheeky received even greater publicity when CNN reported on the controversy in its breaking-news blog. The glut of attention, Hart says, has brought 50,000 hits per day to TheCheeky.
“It’s an oxymoron,” Hart stated. “It’s a big deal with all these activists, and then we get all the publicity for our site.”
Hart is quick to point out that no pigs have been, or will be, killed to make the piglet bank.
“For some reason, people think we’re breeding pigs with slots in their backs,” he said. “Either these people are kids, or they’re really, really special adults.”
“Really, really special adults” is Canadian for morons.
And, folks, taxidermy has been around, in one form or another, since King Tut walked the earth. Pick a battle you have a chance of winning, won’t you? This one is lost.
While the $4K is a touch out of my budget right now, I know that many of our readers are not so impecunious. I’m sure one of them, that would be you BTW, will pop for the perfect gift for Gina.
Then you can honestly say “This little piggy went to market ….”