I’m a taxidermist — I make piggy banks out of real pigs

This gig certainly isn’t boar-ing.

Rachel Lewis, 38, is not your typical taxidermist — she transforms dead piglets into real piggy banks.

The Arizona mom of two told SWNS her pre-order list has become sow long since she began the project in May.

“I thought a piggy bank would be really cute to do,” Lewis explained. “I tried to figure out how to make it work where it would hold the weight of change and be fully functional.”

Lewis was a hairdresser until about four years ago, when she found her passion for taxidermy while taking a class on the art of preserving an animal’s body.

She was inspired by her husband, who is a hunter.

“He also cleans skulls for other hunters,” Lewis shared. “I’ve helped him with that, and I always wanted to be a mortician growing up.”

“When I was helping him with the skulls, I decided to take a taxidermy class,” she continued.

Now she has her own business, Copper State Taxidermy, which boasts various creations, including life-sized bobcats and badgers.

Working on this piggy bank was especially “labor intensive,” as it had to go through a special process, she explained.

“Instead of making a traditional foam form it had to be altered, cut in half, hollowed out, and the insides finished,” she noted.

Lewis said her two young children “fell in love” with the piggy bank and enjoyed putting money into it.

She ended up selling it for a sooie-t $750. Her other piglets typically go for $350.

“I listed it high because I didn’t mind keeping it, but obviously someone else fell in love with it,” she said.

She revealed that particular pig was stillborn, which she explained happens a lot with pigs and goats, as their mothers can “roll over and crush them.”

She claimed she gets most of her animals from local farms.

“It’s sad,” Lewis said. “The farmers said they would just bury them on the property or that they’d just be waste.”

“I feel like they get to live a second life, especially this little piggy in particular who someone fell in love with,” she continued. “It’s kinda cool.”

Now, she’s aiming to make more piggy banks, with plans to transform a larger pig as well.

“I’ll definitely keep one for me and my kids to keep,” she added.

She hopes to expand her business and experiment with jewelry boxes and “secret stash” compartments hidden in different animals, in part with some colla-boar-ation with her sister.

She said they have an idea for a goat piggy bank next.

“We definitely have a few things we’re working on right now,” Lewis teased.

She isn’t the only taxidermist getting creative lately.

In 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, a UK taxidermist decided to make a “high-five machine” out of rat legs for people who missed high-fiving their friends and family members.

He called them “Pawtable High Five Machines.”

And, last year, when an Australian family lost their beloved golden retriever, they hired a taxidermist to turn him into a rug.