Ted Nugent once said his idea of fast food is a mallard. Jane Fonda served venison at her wedding to another Ted named Turner.
Mario Curra drops their names as examples of celebrities who promote hunting and aren't afraid to admit it.
Curra makes his living off people passionate about the sport of hunting, shooting and fishing. They bring him their hunt, and he stuffs it for posterity.
The taxidermist recently opened Wildlife Artistry at 11960 Race Track Road in Tampa. Imagine a menagerie of stuffed deer and safari animals in a fairly nondescript commercial office center. A full-sized leopard greets visitors at the front desk.
Curra specializes in North American and African game, from antelopes to zebras. A transplant from New York, he moved to New Port Richey to retire but found a large demand for taxidermy services, especially for deer, wild hogs, turkeys and safari animals. He avoids family pets, mostly because he doesn't want to act as mortician or counselor.
Each stuffing takes about three months, not including the shipping time, which can be six to seven months if the animal comes from Africa.
Curra sends the hide to a tannery but does the assembly work at his shop. Surprisingly, there's no smell of dead animals or preservatives. Curra doesn't use formaldehyde and seldom sees blood. Done correctly, the work isn't messy.
The cost ranges from $395 for a deer head mount to $7,000 for a life-sized water buffalo. Wooden and habitat bases, such as natural-looking snow-covered rocks, are extra. Finished head mounts, which are covered in a plastic mold, weigh about 10 pounds.
Customers like Steve Young of Brooksville call Curra an artist. Young, 56, considers hunting a spiritual experience that connects him with nature. "I just love the animals, and I love bringing them home,'' he said. Stuffing them keeps alive the memory of the encounter, however brief.
Curra, who hunts throughout North America and Canada, admits not everyone is enamored by his profession. People who stumble across his shop, like the person who saw tax in the sign and mistakenly took it for a tax preparation office, are usually shocked to see so many exotic animals in one room.
Jim Daniels of Tampa used to drive a few hours north to Chiefland to get his animals stuffed. He hunts a a few days a week but "shoots more animals with a camera than a gun.''
Anything he does kill, he makes into chili, sausage and hams so nothing goes to waste. The extra special creatures, he brings to Curra. He wants them to live in perpetuity.
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