Paid to freeze-dry beloved pets, taxidermist took the cash and by no means returned the our bodies, shoppers say

Brenda Lee Stepp didn’t belief the mail to hold the physique of her beloved dachshund, Lil’ Mr. Murphy, all the way in which to Michigan.

She rented an SUV for the 800-mile drive from Atlanta to Newaygo, a tiny city on the southern fringe of the Huron Manistee Nationwide Forests north of Grand Rapids.

There, the 60-year-old actual property agent gave the canine’s stays to a taxidermist named Andrea Huntley and paid her greater than $1,400 in money to have him freeze-dried. She would observe in a subsequent authorized criticism that she had tears in her eyes when she handed him over.

“He was the closest factor I might ever should a child,” Stepp mentioned. “He wasn’t only a canine to me. He was the whole lot, and that’s why I wished to protect him. I simply couldn’t bear the thought of digging a grave and placing his little physique in that grave.”

She hasn’t seen Lil’ Mr. Murphy since.

Huntley was imagined to have the long-haired dachshund freeze-dried and again dwelling by the autumn of 2021, Stepp mentioned, however first Huntley requested for just a few extra months after which advised Stepp to cease contacting her.

Within the months since, Stepp says she has known as and emailed, pleading to have Lil’ Mr. Murphy’s stays returned. She despatched a registered letter to Huntley’s father, Chris, which he signed for. She drove again to Michigan to search for Huntley. She reported her to the Michigan State Police.

And, in September, she filed a lawsuit in federal courtroom searching for greater than $350,000 each in punitive damages and as compensation for “emotional trauma.”

“It’s like she’s kidnapped my child,” Stepp mentioned.

Alongside the way in which, she mentioned, she ran throughout dozens of people that say Huntley did the identical to them.

A household enterprise

Huntley didn’t reply to messages despatched by e-mail, textual content and Fb or to letters mailed to her and her father, however she detailed her historical past within the taxidermy enterprise to Yahoo Lifestyle in 2019.

Her mom, Cathy, had been a marriage florist in Grand Rapids, she mentioned, and started freeze-drying bouquets to protect them, which led to freeze-drying turkey heads for different taxidermists after which, round 2007, to freeze-drying pets.

When Cathy Huntley was recognized with pancreatic most cancers – she died in 2018 – her daughter took over the enterprise, even purchased extra freeze-dryers. She advised Yahoo she discovered it “rewarding.”

“I’m advancing this type of taxidermy by the standard of labor I produce and the open method during which I share details about the freeze dry course of,” Huntley wrote in a listing itemizing on the web site of the Nationwide Taxidermists Affiliation. “Educating others about this distinctive type of taxidermy is essential. Freeze drying must be acknowledged as a legit type of taxidermy. It can by no means change most typical strategies, however it’s distinctive for various purposes.”

Amongst them, for pets. A variety of taxidermy entails eradicating an animal’s disguise and inserting it over a mass-produced type that mimics the form of a species however not essentially the form of the person creature. That’s high-quality for a 12-point buck shot on the primary day of searching season however lower than best for a canine you’ve recognized for a decade.

The benefit of freeze-drying, which entails utilizing chilly and vacuum strain to take away moisture from the animal’s physique, is that the animals come out trying very like they did after they have been alive.

“You’ll be able to pose it and you set it in these specialised freezers and it’s sitting there for six months or a yr and principally what it does is it dehydrates the whole animal but it surely does it so gradual that it doesn’t shrivel up,” mentioned John Madison, who’s within the technique of shutting down the Wisconsin taxidermy enterprise he has run for 28 years.

He employed Huntley within the fall of 2019 to freeze-dry an incredible horned owl he was engaged on for a Milwaukee-area nature middle.

“A variety of us had been doing enterprise together with her mom for lots of years, and her mom was incredible,” he mentioned.

However a job that was imagined to take six months stretched to just about two years. Huntley stopped responding to messages.

Lastly, he says, he reached her by her boyfriend after which obtained an automatic e-mail from her enterprise saying he had a cargo on the way in which. She’d advised him months earlier that the hen was within the freeze-dryer, he mentioned, so he figured it was lastly achieved and didn’t fear about letting the package deal sit on the publish workplace whereas he was out of city on enterprise.

When he opened it, he discovered a thawed and stinking owl carcass. She hadn’t freeze-dried it, he mentioned. She shipped the hen again in a Styrofoam cooler with no ice packs after which refunded his cash.

Worry

Which is greater than Sherry Loewinger says she’s gotten.

Three of her cats – aged tabbies named Boojie Baker, Ringo and Holly Golightly – died from most cancers between December of 2020 and July of the next yr. She despatched every of them to Huntley, she mentioned, placing down deposits of a number of hundred {dollars} every time.

In October of 2021, a pal requested how the method was going and Loewinger seen that the web site for Freeze Dry by C & Co., Huntley’s taxidermy enterprise, was down. Then she seen negative online reviews that she hadn’t seen before and complaints about Huntley on the Taxidermy.net forum.

“I’m like, ‘No, this will’t be actual,’ Loewinger mentioned.

Huntley assured her the whole lot was on observe, she mentioned, after which stopped responding to messages.

Loewinger has filed a report with the Michigan Legal professional Common’s Workplace however mentioned she’s felt like she has to deal with the scenario delicately as a result of our bodies of Boojie Baker, Ringo and Holly Golightly are seemingly nonetheless in Huntley’s possession.

“As a psychologist, my worry is that, if I carry on harassing her, she’s going to take it out on my cats,” mentioned Loewinger, who lives in California and works for the state’s Division of Corrections & Rehabilitation.

“I wish to give her the prospect to complete this job, like, ‘Simply let it let it go. Simply end it. Let me know the place you’re at,’” she mentioned. “I don’t wish to piss her off.”

Rob Benson noticed Huntley in particular person over the summer time. He mentioned, on the time, she had the our bodies of cats and canine in her freeze-driers.

“I truly stopped over there to assist her out making an attempt to get stuff again to individuals,” mentioned Benson, who’s the president of the Michigan Taxidermist Affiliation. “She mentioned she was getting issues achieved.”

He advised her she wanted to speak extra together with her prospects.

“That’s a very powerful factor,” he mentioned, “particularly with pets.”

Recently, although, he hasn’t been capable of attain her.

U.S. District Decide Paul Maloney dismissed Stepp’s case on Thursday, saying the courtroom lacked the jurisdiction, however he didn’t shut the door to future lawsuits.

And Lt. Michelle Robinson, a public info officer for the Michigan State Police’s Sixth District, confirmed that troopers from the Hart Put up are investigating the complaints about Huntley.

“It’s an ongoing investigation and I’ve no additional info to present right now,” she wrote.