Allis Markham, Hollywood Taxidermy's Rising Star

Allis Markham has two dead cats in her freezer. There’s also a frozen peacock, an Arctic fox pup, four raccoons, four grapefruit-size bull scrotums, and several fluffy ducklings sealed in a Ziploc bag. “I’m looking to get a camel and an ostrich,” Markham says during an April visit to her studio in downtown Los Angeles. “I’ve been calling ostrich farms, petting zoos, camel ride places.” She adds, “It’s hard not to creep people out.”

Dead animals are Markham’s business. Three years ago, the now 31-year-old quit her job as the director for social media strategy at to become a full-time taxidermist. Markham, who got her gamehead certificate in 2009, worked exclusively for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, skinning, tanning, and mounting everything from canaries to tigers. In March she cut back to 30 hours a week there to focus on her own company, Prey Taxidermy, which offers custom taxidermy for television, film, and photo shoots. For one recent job, she was paid $2,000 to mount four homing pigeons for an Annie Leibovitz shoot starring Taylor Swift as Rapunzel. Read more...