I read some good advice recently. If you are being chased by a taxidermist, do not play dead.
Cynthia Brailovski is a taxidermist and owner of True Mount Taxidermy in Quakertown.
She is almost a Bucks County native, having moved here when she was four years old. She was in the first graduating class of Central Bucks High School South.
Cynthia moved away for some years, but she missed Bucks County and moved back with her boyfriend. He was a hunter and he got her interested in hunting. She found the trips they made to the taxidermist very interesting, but she never imagined it as a career for herself until the time their taxidermist had to turn them away because he was too busy.
“You should learn how to do this yourself,” he told her jokingly. “My first thought,” Cynthia says, “was that’s ridiculous.” Still, it resonated.
She remembered she had always gravitated toward working with animals and had experience with several veterinary offices and at boarding facilities. She thought taxidermy would still be working with animals, just in a different way, a way of honoring the animal after it has died.
For a while, she worked for a pharmaceutical company. When the company went under, she started to check out taxidermy schools and decided on Bill Allen’s Pocono Institute. Finishing there, she went to work at a local tannery and did all their skull cleaning. “I also took home a lot of foxes to skin.”
Today, business is thriving. “I mainly do deer,” she says. “Also, a lot of furbearers like foxes, coyotes, and bears. Also, a lot of elk and caribou. I’ve gotten a few African pieces, a water buffalo, and just last year I did a jackal.”
Cynthia is asked about companion animals too. “I get a lot of calls for pets, and it breaks my heart when these calls come in because I can hear in their voice how upset the person is.” Cynthia points out that when a hunter harvests a deer, they have only spent a few hours with the animal, but a pet is a friend they looked at every day for years. This can make it very difficult to work on pets.
“There isn’t a form for your Golden Retriever. Everything has to be custom and hand carved. And I can never lose sight of the fact that I’m working on a family member who was loved. If just one thing is off, it won’t look like the animal did in life.”
Cynthia has received some strange requests in her career. “I’ve even gotten calls from people asking about having themselves preserved after they’ve passed—which just to clarify is definitely not something I do.”
As with any business, it can be challenging balancing work with family life. “During hunting season, I’m out in the shop the second my daughter gets on the bus and there are nights when I’m out in the shop till past midnight.”
But Cynthia knows where to draw the line. “If we have family stuff to do or my daughter has a school event, I will always be there. I’ve never missed one of her games, and I don’t plan to.”
Taxidermy is largely seasonal, and Cynthia says, “I can get enough work in each year to keep me busy until the following year, but things slow down once mid-December hits.”
Her daughter, Maia, is into hunting now too. “Her stepdad takes her out every year and she’s been quite successful. Having a taxidermist as a mom has its perks!”
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