Ohmygawd - what next? Road kill calendar - that's what!

I despair - again.

Many of us have have calendars with "normal" photos like smiling babies, gourmet food settings, flowers, forests, advertisements...run-of-the-mill, regular stuff. Then along comes somebody with the dumb/demented idea to create a calendar consisting of - wait for it and gasp - road kill. Seriously!

The calendar in question features the photographic images of squashed squirrels, badgers who have met up with cars and dead ducks - the poultry type. What makes this story even more grotesque is that it has become a best seller! What is wrong with people these days?

The creator is one Kevin Beresford, a courier who travels around the country taking pictures of dead critters. Surely the man can find better subjects than...road kill. Making this even worse is that there is a big demand on line. He admits that some of his "subjects" are so squished they can't be identified. This indicates that the photos most likely have blood and guts spilling out. How absolutely horrible and yucky.

January features four dead mallards and a dead hedgehog ending the year.

"I like the idea as it's different and appeals to my take on life and I think the British love animals - even dead ones," Beresford commented. What type of life does this mean lead, anyway?

So this leads one to ask people reading the story if they would buy a caledar featuring 12 photos of roadkill. Would you? I can say unequivocally that I would not!

Here's a sample of what we're alluding to:
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Roadkill_calendar_a_surprise_hit

Dead squirrels used as beer holder

It's another one of those news pieces that make you wonder "what in the hell were they thinking?"

A scottish brewery used dead squirrels with presumably empty stomachs or at least empty for the most part, to promote their latest beer. Why? Because they could, one supposes. The beer in question that goes by Brew Dog, which is reputed to be the strongest and most expensive beer yet, sold out within hours of its release.

The brew contains a record 55% alcohol and animal advocates are not impressed and condemned the stunt. No kidding! The initial run was packaged in 7 dead stoats, 4 squirrels and a rabbit. A stoat for those of us who are not familiar with this animal, is a small animal or ermine. The beer could become a collectors item given the price of (Can. $800 - U.S.$1000) per bottle. You really have to like beer to pay that price.

Here's a photo of the beer and the beer holder: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/07/23/con-brewdog-beer.html

Here's what a stoat looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoat

"It's pointless and it's very negative to use dead animals when we should be celebrating live animals," Advocates for Animals policy director Libby Anderson told BBC Scotland. "This seems to be a perverse idea."

What next? Vintage champagne bottles in hamsters or shot glasses of vodka in gold fish? Gimme a break!