#I find (animal....) skulls quite often but it's a bunch of effort to clean them but man if I had time

[malacandrax]

I've been collecting pottery shards from the fields and woodland since I moved to the countryside a few years ago, I have so many now that I think I'll relocate them to containers, but it's nice to get a proper photo first.

#before this it was seaglass lol #the population of my village is like <200 and most of them are over 70 and don't go out so there aint much on the floor #its slim pickings out here for things from the living #but the dead leave plenty... #I find (animal....) skulls quite often but it's a bunch of effort to clean them but man if I had time #I do have a couple tho! #I also found a couple horseshoes out here which is always exciting

[blackbackedjackal]

Can I just. Virtually hug you for your posts about working on animal remains not equaling hurting animals? I once had a boy in my *college* ethics class chew me out that articulating a *skeleton* was "animal cruelty" and was just so flabbergasted I couldn't even respond. Also I'm one of the few vultures I know who support good farms and hunters that humanely dispatch their animals so the lack of demonizing I see so often is a breath of fresh air. Just.. Thank you so much for being you.

Yeah like sometime the comments I get are just so ..?????? And I mean I’ve been harassed like both in person and online. I took my soft mount to a con once and this girl just flat out called me disgusting and started yelling at me. Her boyfriend ended up apologizing and pulled her away and I was just there like I…ok?? Even today I’ve had a few death threats and disgusting comments and just unbelievably rude or ignorant messages sent to me and I’m sitting here like you guys realize you’re the ones acting crazy right? Not me lol. I am simply finding or buying remains to work on, and really making an effort to show the processes in a positive light. So yeah after being tagged in a bunch of vegan’s instagram stories, being told I deserve to die or kill myself, I just wanna vent about how blatantly stupid and counterproductive this behavior is and explain that not everything about animal processing is bad.. Yes, there are bad hunters/trapper/farms that should be reprimanded for abusing and mistreating animals, but not everyone on those groups should be punished for the wrongdoings of some members of their community. I mean hell, there’s even bad Vultures. People who scam others in the community and ignore the laws set in place, or blatantly just lie, but is every Vulture supposed to be punished for a few bad eggs? No. 

But you’re right, working with and collecting animal remains is not equal to condoning animal cruelty. The animal died. I wanted to preserve it’s remains. It’s really not any deeper then that most of the time. I find quite a bit of meaning in many of the animals I work on (especially things I keep for my personal collection), but sometimes it’s also like ‘this dude has had these skulls in his freezer for years now, if I buy and clean them I can share them with people who’ll appreciate each individual detail about them, and that would make me happy knowing they’re with someone that will appreciate them.’ I don’t think you guys really understand how much joy I get when I ship someone their first pelt or skull and they tell me how much they love it or what they named it and stuff like, that is so fulfilling for me. 

Anyway I’m rambling but yeah like keep enjoying your hobby and don’t let people get you down just because their opinions differ from yours. As long as you know you’re doing the right thing that’s really all that matters.

#ask