Piggy banks made from real piglets 'insensitive,' says humane society
By Amy Minsky, Postmedia News November 10, 2010
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/...tml?id=3806884
Piggy bank made from piglets that have been mounted by a taxidermist and fitted with coin storage and cork plugs. Thecheeky.com sells what they call "the piggy bank of all piggy banks" for $4,000.
Photograph by: thecheeky.com, Photo Handout
A piggy bank made from a real, dead piglet is being touted as an essential gift this holiday season — and that has some "disgusted" animal rights activists calling for a halt on the sale of the product.
But the Vancouver-based vendors say the public reaction is a little over the top.
"We've had a few emails today saying some not very nice things to us," said Ryan McCormick, one of two entrepreneurs behind the
online shop selling the $4,000 money container. "Some death threats and many calling us disgusting pigs."
The "piggy bank of all piggy banks," featured on
thecheeky.com website, has been getting attention since it was featured in Vancouver Magazine's current holiday gift guide.
"This is such an insensitive, callous thing to be promoting this for the holiday season," said Jenelle Petrinchuck, a spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Humane Society, which has asked the sellers to remove the item. The group has also created an online campaign urging the public to send emails and letters demanding the same.
"Everybody we've shown it to has been disgusted by it," added Petrinchuck. "There's no reason to be charging $4,000 for that. There's no reason to be charging anything."
But McCormick said there's absolutely no chance he and his partner Colin Hart will remove the piglet from their catalogue.
"We're operating a business," he said. "It's no different than buying a leather jacket or a leather belt, or having bacon on your BLT. We're just adapting it to a different product."
When someone buys a piggy bank, the artists order a piglet through a taxidermist. All of the animals have died natural deaths, McCormick said.
Each bank can take up to 12 months to be delivered from the time the order is processed.
"It's a real piglet that has been taxidermied and inserted with what all piglets probably dream of as babies, a coin storage unit and a cork plug," the online description reads.
"Make your plush overpriced apartment complete with this little guy."
No piglet banks have been sold, but McCormick said there has been a lot of interest.
McCormick and Hart were embroiled in another scandal this summer when Transport Canada pressured them to stop selling large luggage stickers that made it look as though bags were stuffed with cocaine, U.S. currency, sex toys or a bound-and-gagged flight attendant.
At the time, the federal transport minister's office said the stickers were "not funny" and issued stern words for anyone thinking of using them.
Hart and McCormick had initially stopped selling the stickers in Canada, but started filling domestic orders again about two months ago.
According to the magazine, other "perfect gifts" that will help consumers "win friends and influence people" this holiday season include reusable cotton organic produce bags, vegan diaper and hand bags, plants, makeup and a popcorn popper.
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Piggy banks made from real piglets 'insensitive,' says humane society
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