Taxidermy, another word for the art of stuffing and mounting dead animals, has found a new purpose in the Lansing area thanks to Nick Saade, owner of Taxidermy by Nick Saade.
Saade isn’t the most traditional taxidermist and in preparation of the highly anticipated MSU and University of Michigan rivalry football game this Saturday in Ann Arbor, Saade decided to recreate the game for himself here in Lansing — taxidermy style.
Saade created a scene from an imaginary MSU and U-M game in his home workshop, which is filled with different unfinished projects and stuffed animals that look just like they would in their natural habitats. Complete with a Spartan catching a pass for the touchdown and referees raising their arms, there is only one difference between Saade’s model and the actual football game — all of the players are stuffed dead chipmunks.
Each stuffed chipmunk is placed as if they’re actually playing football, dressed with a helmet from either team and a specific pose depending on their position. This particular model of an MSU and U-M game is only the second of its kind but the only one for sale as of now — Saade sold a similar model to a man from New Jersey. Saade’s current model shows MSU winning the game with a final touchdown catch and an asking price of $1500.
When asked, “why chipmunks?” Saade explained, “those are the most abundant nuisance little dudes that people have hard time with, just wasting them left and right and because we have so many of them.”
Saade said he has been doing taxidermy as a hobby since the middle of the 70’s because he feels he’s a hunter by nature and loves being close to animals. He has several displays in local sporting goods stores.Saade stopped working at Sparrow Hospital in food service to pursue taxidermy fulltime because he said it is what truly makes him happy.
Whether Saade’s model of dead Spartan chipmunks winning the game is any indication of the actual game’s outcome or not, we’ll take it as a sign that maybe Spartans and Wolverines aren’t so different after all.
