Bengaluru couple drives to Mumbai seeking afterlife for pet duck

India's only practising taxidermist Dr Santosh Gaikwad had strange visitors in the wee hours of Friday - a couple who drove nearly 27 hours from Bengaluru to Mumbai, just to give their dead pet duck a 'new' life after its death.

Taxidermy is an art of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skin of a dead animal and turning them into a life-like trophy for display, conservation and educational purposes. Gaikwad has also been helping pet owners preserve their dead pets and keep them in a life-like form through this art.

According to 36-year-old Electronic city resident Kartikraj, it was around four years ago that he got a chick of a domesticated duck from a local who was herding them. "We kept it and loved its company. It used to swim around in our large plastic tub and we also used to let it roam freely in the open," he said adding that they named it Lambu and apart from being fed on bird food it used to love feasting on tomatoes, green peas and even prawns rice at times.

However, in the last few weeks, it's health deteriorated and knowing that it could soon be gone forever, the couple who had read about Dr Gaikwad decided to opt for taxidermy of Lambu post its death and contacted him after the duck died recently. "It was a very emotional decision and since we did not know how our families, friends and others respond to our idea of keeping a preserved dead pet at home given the superstitions, we did not tell anyone about our plan," said Kartikraj stating that possibly they will have to end up keeping Lambu in a cupboard forever to not hurt the sentiments of the family.

"I was initially surprised that someone wanted a domestic duck preserved. I explained to them that they will have to send the duck kept in an icebox to ensure that it doesn't begin to decompose. Since they could not get a courier company willing to send a dead bird to Mumbai they told me that they have decided to drive to Mumbai leaving early on Wednesday, which touched me," said Dr Gaikwad who is a professor at the anatomy department, Mumbai Veterinary College.

The couple who put Lambu in an ice box and kept changing ice throughout their journey reached Gaikwad' s home in Jogeshwari around 3 am in the morning and handed him the ice box.

According to Gaikwad, he will now keep Lambu in a deep-freezer before beginning the taxidermy procedure. "We will have to de-skin it and carry out tanning for preservation and to ensure its hair-follicle don't begin to shed in few years. The bones and few others parts will be used to create a mould in the shape of the duck on which the skin will be fitted and sewed," he explained adding that the model will be ready in a week's time.