# Ratcopter - boy turns dead pet rat into flying quadcopter



## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/29140059

Strange way to honor a dead pet...


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## CatsRatsVeggies (Aug 18, 2014)

That is rancid... Oh my days.


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## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

I know! I know some people like to have animals stuffed after they die - but this is just double yuck!


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## CatsRatsVeggies (Aug 18, 2014)

How can you as parents, let your child do that? And if the child came up with it.. well he needs some professional help. That just isn't normal for a child!


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## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

There was a bloke a while back who did the same thing to his cat, which is where the idea probably came from.


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## lovemyfurries (Aug 13, 2014)

That's just sick, definitely something wrong with those people! How the heck can that poor rat rest in peace.


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## Kucero (Sep 6, 2014)

Now I know what to do with Aunt Gertie when she goes.


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## Kucero (Sep 6, 2014)

Seriously, something tells me the kid wasn't that emotionally attached to begin with. And you know the parents OKed it. If people like that insist on having pets, they're probably better suited for reptiles.


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

What the heck! I mean, to be honest I have an odd fascination with semi-morbid things, but this is just wrong! Geez kid, bury your pet and go buy a plush doll rat and make that into a helicopter!


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## Adeliek (Jul 28, 2014)

I thought this was going to be a cute video of rats helicoptering...now I'm a bit disturbed!!!


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## LeStan82 (Dec 31, 2013)

Thats creepy, people are such odd characters......


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## ratty213 (Aug 16, 2014)

WHY WHY would you want to do that. That is absolutely awful and disturbing.


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## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

Folk at my work are teasing me about turning my own rats into ratcopters. Grrrr! Lol!


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## gotchea (May 4, 2013)

When my first rat died the little girl (about 4) in my family really wanted to taxidermy her. She just wanted to always keep her. I don't think she is mental or anything. She really did love my rat too.. For some reason she just like taxidermy and wanted to keep Prim forever. I guess my sister and I are kind of twisted(and open about it infront of her) so it rubs off. My favorite flower are dead flowers(mainly roses.) people would bring dried up dead flowers all the time. My grandmother even sent me some in the mail  We have a lot if ground squirrels up here and sometimes we find their sun bleached skulls and collect them and other animal bones. Now I know it isn't the same as a making a plane out if your dead pet...but just a little bit of my weirdness that could have causes the our little girl's weirdness. Idk why I think making the plane is so weird, but simple pet taxidermy isn't.


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## PawsandClaws (Jul 22, 2014)

For some reason, I do not find it all that strange. If my child asked to turn our deceased pet into a helicopter, I would say no but at the same time, it does not really bother me all that much. Child isn't hurting anyone and I am really reluctant to call a fascination with the dead 'crazy', because it is not. He isn't torturing the rat to death and then stuffing it and turning it into a ratcopter - that would indeed be mental. I do not know enough either, maybe he struggled with the death of the pet and this was his way of dealing. I find it strange to have the ashen remains of relatives/pets in an urn in your living room (personally) but I would not look down upon anyone for doing so, I understand.


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## Zabora (Jun 8, 2014)

Its odd no doubt but still I'm not that bothered with it. I wouldn't do that but well that's just me. My husband and I have disgussed getting Andie out Chihuahua cremated when she goes and keeping her ashes. I wouldn't put a motor between her buttcheeks and fly her but again that's just me.


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## deedeeiam (Apr 8, 2014)

I'm slightly amazed by how hung up people are over this. Criticizing how anyone choses to grieve is short-cited and inconsiderate. Many people across the world memorize their loved ones in ways people in the US may find "disrespectful" but there is no right or wrong.

This child contacted knowledgeable people and put a lot of thought into an interactive memorial of sorts.

My father is 3rd generation funeral home owners, we've seen it all. This...this is nothing. The kid doesn't have "issues." He's not crazy. He's just a kid in an age of technology that figured out how he could keep playing with his pet.


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## Akarah (Sep 2, 2014)

I find it weird. But that's me....I wouldn't do something like that or allow my child to do it. Yes we mourn in different ways. But that's like taking a deceased loved one and making a couch to sit on out of them...too weird for me.


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Okay while there is nothing at all wrong with pet taxidermy, I think it's taking it another level entirely when you attach propellers to it and turn it into a toy.


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## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

There was a dutch artist who did the same thing to his cat a couple years ago - I imagine the Ratcopter was inspired by this creation. 
http://metro.co.uk/2014/09/08/all-c...-flying-and-other-nightmarish-things-4860995/

Each to their own I guess! Of course there are all sorts of weird and wonderful ways that people honor their dead in this world now and in times gone past. I guess a lot of folk are uncomfortable with death which is why things like this can be met with shock. I personally enjoy going to old museums and wandering around the taxidermy sections - but I don't think I could have a pet stuffed in the same way I wouldn't want to have a close relative stuffed - it would look like them but not at the same time, I think it would be quite upsetting for me.


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## CatsRatsVeggies (Aug 18, 2014)

The cat has really really upset me. I love all animals but cats hold a special place in my heart and that is just. Euk. How can any animal achieve peace by being turns into a flying contraction? No no no.


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## Adeliek (Jul 28, 2014)

I have a serious thing when it comes to dead animals. I can't even bear to touch the dried mealworms in my rat food. It gives me the shivers, but if that's what the little boy wanted to do then fair enough.


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## Hey-Fay (Jul 8, 2013)

Huh. Well it's not what I'd do, but then again I'm not him. People have different ways of grieving; this is just his. Yes its strange, but who are we to judge?


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

I had plans to rearticulate the skeleton of my massive blue male when he died. He died so suddenly though at such a young age that I just wasn't prepared to take on the task. Some people may think that's morbid, but so is keeping your grandmother's ashes in an urn on the fireplace mantle really. Luckily he's been the only one to die here; I feel horrible that I won't be able to visit him in a few months after I move.


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## deedeeiam (Apr 8, 2014)

If I die before my father for some reason, I want him to arrange a Tibetan Sky Burial. My mother is soooooo against it.


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

deedeeiam said:


> If I die before my father for some reason, I want him to arrange a Tibetan Sky Burial. My mother is soooooo against it.


Well that was definitely not what I expected. Though it's probably not far from my own wish to be interred without embalming and without a casket (minus vultures). If I can't do anything to help the earth in life then at least I can give a little in death.


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## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

Oh gads I wish I hadn't looked that up in google image search - nearly lost my lunch!


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Okay but I think that's different than what this boy did. Giving your body back to the earth is one thing, the rat copter would be like if my boyfriend died and I had him stuffed and made him into a marionette and played with him


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

Kitterpuss said:


> Oh gads I wish I hadn't looked that up in google image search - nearly lost my lunch!


Lol it was definitely interesting. I plan on reading more about it when I have a moment (like when I'm not paying attention in class ). I honestly don't see anything wrong with the idea. I think humans have deluded themselves into thinking that they're above the food chain somehow and we do everything we possibly can to our dead to make sure that that continues. We might not have any natural predators anymore, but that doesn't mean we can't feed scavengers or decompose naturally the way every other living thing on the planet does.....this has gotten waaaaay off topic from the ratcopter.


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

ksaxton said:


> Okay but I think that's different than what this boy did. Giving your body back to the earth is one thing, the rat copter would be like if my boyfriend died and I had him stuffed and made him into a marionette and played with him


We're just really off topic now. I think that comment was more aimed towards the fact that I brought up cremation in humans.


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## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

Ahah it sure has! And it should carry a NSFW warning - hope none of my workmates saw me looking at pictures of dead people being eaten by vultures, I'm sure they already think Im odd enough as it is!


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

We get off topic a lot  it's interesting to hear other peoples worldviews though.


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Kitterpuss said:


> Ahah it sure has! And it should carry a NSFW warning - hope none of my workmates saw me looking at pictures of dead people being eaten by vultures, I'm sure they already think Im odd enough as it is!


My boyfriend caught me and thought I was looking at gore!


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## deedeeiam (Apr 8, 2014)

ksaxton said:


> Okay but I think that's different than what this boy did. Giving your body back to the earth is one thing, the rat copter would be like if my boyfriend died and I had him stuffed and made him into a marionette and played with him


In some cultures, they take their dead out of the ground on regular basis - fix their makeup, tell them about things that happened throughout the year, dress them in new clothes. Other cultures partially mummify them (fill them with salt) and sit them at the dinner table every day until their heads fall off, then they boil the skin off their bones and make jewelry out of the bones for the family. And we've had to use PVC plenty of times to pose bodies for funeral services - sitting on motorcycles, drinking some tea, sitting on a porch swing.

And sorry to everyone who looked up what the sky ritual was in an image search.

Basically, a body is a body. The part that makes us love and laugh dies with the body. Some people have trouble thinking about something they love as only being a shell.


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## Tesumph (Aug 12, 2014)

Very interesting. I find it odd that he turned a pet into a toy, but it wasn't my rat, and if that's how he wants to cope then so be it. Or maybe he's not coping-- maybe he is genuinely apathetic towards critters and doesn't respect the dead enough to differentiate toys and companion animals? When Booker, my big Siamese rat, started getting old I planned on saving his bones, because I collect skeletons and skulls... Well, he died suddenly after having two violent seizures, and even though I wasn't very close to him like Ink or Cave, I couldn't bring myself to defile his corpse... All of our animals have been buried at the back of our property, but I have a special little isolated area just for the ratties.


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## Gannyaan (Dec 7, 2012)

Maybe the boy was just so sad to see his friend go, and he wanted them to play forever.... He is a kid, after all 

I think on some level I understand what the boy was trying to do, assuming he was attached to the rat... 

I have a hard time with deaths of my pets . I get very attached to them, and spend a lot of time caring for them....

Anyways, I would rather have someone taxidermy their rat than throw them in a dumpster after death or not care where they go... To me , on a spiritual level that is very important.

I don't know if rats would like to fly, but maybe that one did. Since I still tear up sometimes when I think about my Scarlett who died like 6 weeks ago, I don't think I'm anyone to judge how people honor their dead...


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## dakotah999 (Aug 25, 2014)

Whats wrong with this? Taxidermy can be really cool, personally I think If someone enjoys something than let them be. As long as it died a normal happy death then whats wrong with self expression? Its weird, and I understand gross. but the boy probably didn't think so, and its probably a taxidermy. I wouldn't do this, but I have friends who like taxidermy and they are really sweet kind animal lovers into creepy morbid things.


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## surrounded (May 24, 2012)

I think it's kinda sweet.


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