You’ve Seen a Bodega Cat. How About a Barber Shop Rooster?

Cypress Hills Taxidermy Studio

John Youngaitis, owner
Pablo, milk snake
Sparky, African gray parrot

“Sparky’s like my companion because she talks all day,” John Youngaitis said of the pet parrot who spends time with him at his taxidermy studio in Queens. “She hangs out with me. I work, she sits on my shoulder. So, yeah, there is definitely a connection.”

Sparky is more talkative than Pablo.

“The snake is just decoration,” Mr. Youngaitis said. “Something exotic and cool, and it kind of goes.”

Pablo does fit in well with everything else in a taxidermy shop: “I like all animals, live and dead,” Mr. Youngaitis said. “It’s all nature to me.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/03/business/bodega-pets-animal-lovers.html