Dead animals allow former USU student to live the life he loves
Friendly and easy-going, Daniel Wegener spends his days with animals of all kinds. Birds are the most common, though he’s often seen mingling with fish, deer and even the occasional bobcat.
But all the animals are dead.
Wegener is a taxidermist.
When people walk in his shop, Drop-Tine Taxidermy, they are greeted by a giant moose on the wall, a crouching black bear on the floor and a pheasant perched on driftwood.
In his back room, Wegener will be working on his latest project.
“Hello,” he said as he came out of the back room wearing a baseball cap, a T-shirt and jeans. “Sorry. I got a bird on a stick.”
In his hand is a small bird he’s been working on for hours. Pins hold its artificial eyes in place and a metal stick allows the bird to wobble up and down, almost as if it’s alive. Wegener said he is almost ready to place the bird in its new habitat – a foam base with a small tree he found by the river.
Making artificial habitats and mounting animals is more than work for Wegener. It’s a hobby. He said Drop-Tine Taxidermy has been open since September, but wildlife has been a part of his life since he was a child.
“I grew up with this kind of stuff,” he said. “My brother and I would go hunting or catch fish at First Dam.”
Wegener said he always wanted to work with animals and the outdoors. He said he went to Utah State University for three years and planned on getting a degree in wildlife science. Then, last summer, he said he and his wife decided to do something different. He soon found himself attending the Montana School of Taxidermy and learning the art of tanning hide and mounting animals.
Now, after completing his training, he has a business of his own and said he has worked on everything from swans to coyotes.
“In Montana, I learned how to really make stuff look good,” he said. “My favorite part is completing it. I can step back and think, ‘Damn – That looks good!’ When it’s done, that’s what I love.”
Wegener said he likes mounting animals he has never worked with before and especially enjoys working with big game like deer and elk. However, even though he’s used to almost anything, he still has a hard time with coyotes.
“I don’t like touching coyotes,” he said. “They make my skin crawl. I just think they’re nasty and I don’t know why.”
Wegener said he receives animals about every other day and he has fun talking to his customers because they’re usually happy and have something they’re proud of.
Everything is very detailed, he said, and most people don’t realize it.
“When an animal dies, it loses all its color,” he said. “Then I have to go back and make it look like it did when it was alive.”
This means painting bird beaks and duck bills. He also does a lot of stitching, sewing and stapling.
In his back room, he has several tools and knives hanging on a cork board. He has a shelf where he stores paint and clay and on his counter he has a radio that plays music in the background.
“I don’t listen to country music and I don’t wear cowboy boots,” he said. “I think people expect that.”
His wife, Kayce, said Wegener found a perfect job for himself because he’s always enjoyed wildlife. Kayce, who said she never thought about hunting her whole life, went for the first time two years ago with her husband and said she is now fascinated by animals and taxidermy.
“I like the people coming in and it’s fun to watch,” she said. “I help him with the sewing part and I’d like to learn how to do everything.”
She said the most interesting animal Drop-Tine Taxidermy received was a farm goat.
“It’s kind of funny. We always joke about people bringing in their pets to have them stuffed and then this guy brought his goat, which was his pet for 16 years,” Kayce said. “It was a smelly thing.”
She said she likes seeing all the animals and how different they are – from the various colors of pheasants, to swans and bobcats, which she said she especially liked.
“The bobcat is the neatest,” Kayce said. “It looks like a little housecat with huge claws and teeth.”
She helps come up with the ideas for the artificial habitats and likes putting them together. She said she also likes talking to the customers about their animals and hunting even if “some take hunting a little too seriously.”
Kayce said she and her husband have been making friends with the hunters since the business opened. Some of them, she said, just stop by to look around and talk.
“This has been a great thing for my husband to get into because he always hunted,” she said. “It’s been fun so far and we’re forming new friendships.”
Wegener said his business is the first commercial taxidermy to open in Logan. Because of this, when he got his business license, he said the city didn’t know what to classify it as. They ended up saying Drop-Tine Taxidermy was an animal hospital and a morgue.
“I thought that was pretty funny,” Wegener said. “I guess I’m a mortician and a vet wrapped up in one.”
For more information about Drop-Tine Taxidermy call 787-2132 or visit their location at 680 W. 200 North.
-mnewbold@cc.usu.edu