Orville the cat was named after Orville Wright, and when he died, Bart Jansen, the cant’s “owner” taxidermied him and, in collaboration with Radio Controlled Flying Objects expert Arjen Beltman, they converted Orville the cat into a working helicopter.
From the daily mail:
Jansen said the Orvillecopter is ‘half cat, half machine’, and part of a visual art project to pay tribute to his cat Orville.
Jansen, part of the art cooperative Generaal Pardon, said: ‘After a period of mourning he received his propellers posthumously.’
Click through to see more photos, and here’s the video:
Are these people true cat lovers, or are they monsters? Modern technology does certainly bring up novel ethical concerns for cats …
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Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
If you want to try this. My advice is, kill the cat first. It makes the whole process much easier.
Disgusting.
That’s all I can say.
OH, by the way, Amoeba, I’m not really happy about having swastika’s on my site. Please explain your avatar or change it.
102 Uses for a Dead Cat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101_Uses_for_a_Dead_Cat
The swastika is a protest at climate denier Lord Christopher Monckton who casts about accusations of Nazi against scientists he dislikes.
The gravatar without the swastika is a parody of Monkton’s Pink Portcullis that he litters his publications with in an attempt to pretend he’s a member of the House of Lords, which he is not.
Slide from one of his talks.
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2011/06/21/monckton-says-that-if-you-acce/
avatar. whatever.
Cool I approve of your avitar!
I expect Orville would achieve better air time with a slice of buttered toast on his back.
Eeew! Taxidermy is sick enough, but that is very sick!
I can imagine small children acquiring some very strange felidcentric nightmares.
Katz just aren’t aerodynamic. It looks to me like there’s a balance problem and possibly also a payload problem. Then again maybe the guy didn’t have enough practice controlling that kind of toy.
Disgusting.
As a lover of both cats and quadcopters, I still find this deeply insulting to the dignity of the cat, Orville. Would you do this to your loved one?
Watch out Tweety!
Pigeons are also worried.
I’d love to be stuffed and aviated post-mortem.
Greg, if you weren’t already happily married, but instead were out meeting women, would YOU do something like that?
Please note that I have neither endorsed nor opposed the policy of feline retrofitting.
Because I build and fly model airplanes, I am not too impressed with the performance. And, no, I would not care to try to do better.
Let’s see what is so disgusting about this…
1..Dead cat is slowly eaten by bacteria, causing it to stink awfully, being torn apart by insects, worms and other critters.
2..It is dead and gone and instead of 1 above the skin is re-purposed and having some excitement.
Oh! Sorry forgot…#2 helps to remind sensitive folks that they will soon be dead too, while #1 is hidden away from sight so we can make believe it aint happening.
But I do agree that I would not do as shown but only because it is aero-dynamically unsound.
It’s a fake. This is clearly a Flying squirrel, retrofitted to make it look like a cat on a radio controlled helicopter. 🙂
I think it’s cool. What else would you do with a perfectly good dead cat besides throw it away? The cat’s beyond caring, and they didn’t kill it just to make a helicopter.
Should you convert your dead cat into a helicopter, prepare for snarky comments on the internet.
Should you convert your dead cat into a helicopter, do not use it to tease the other cats by chasing, then flying after birds.
Should you convert your dead cat into a helicopter, make sure to add a controller to make it autonomous. An automatic patrolling cat copter? Yes please!
Your own cat? No. The one your neighbor lets roam at night, causing no end of havoc? Possibly. Then fly it up to his bedroom window at 6 in the morning, and bump it into the glass just enough to wake him up to peer out.
Define “havoc”. Some neighborhoods have more animal friendly natures than others. Packs of the neighbor’s dogs roam freely at night here, causing… sometimes barking happens? I’ve yet to see any home invasions at any rate, and everyone has city provided bins for garbage so that concern’s moot too. It’s probably different in inner-city areas than a suburb that’s surrounded by woods. At any rate, cooping them up just seems cruel, even with the added risk to their own life just by stepping outside. Live like a pirate!
Dark Jaguar, I humbly request you reset your snark (bad humor?) detector and re-read my post afterwards.
Logically there is no clear ethical problem here. No suffering is being created and the cat’s cadaver is almost certainly defined as the private property of the cat’s “human companion”. He would certainly have been sanctioned by the authorities if he were caught disposing of it improperly, so I suppose he can do what he wants with it.
From a subjective point of view, I find this aesthetically grotesque.
I respect taxonomy as an art form and a very good method of preserving zoological specimens for permanent display.
Historically, it has been used for mummification, including of cats, with an eye toward creating or symbolizing eternal life. I’m not a fan of that. I think it’s better to accept death as what it is. Here an element of ridicule and indignity is added.
oo very funny flying cat
icanhazrotorz
Hi. I’m new here. OF COURSE you should build a flying cat. But honestly, taxidermy is for crazy old rich cat lady types. The thing is wobbling all over.
What you want to do is remove the cat’s eyeballs with a spoon (you’ll need them later).
Next, You got to draw out the arms and legs with some bungee cords to get the x shape. you can use table legs to tie them off, as your skeleton dries. If you did it right the cat will stiffen in the ideal x shape.
Now throw the cat in a barrel of bleach and water. (Bleach water is the coolest cuz it will leave the skeleton clean and white!)
Now shellac it to add a protective coat and make it shine. You can paint it but coats of stuff add weight. Shellac gives a more natural finish.
You should use a hacksaw or something similar to peel your kitty’s cap back and scoop out the brains. The bleach doesn’t quite get to them.
Voila! There’s your frame. YOu got the rib cage for your receivers and mechanical parts. Light, and SCARY because skeletons are scary!
You may choose to put the eyes back in, or use red LED lights. I didn’t preserve my cat’s eyes because eyeballs gross me out!
Those red laser pointers strapped inside the skull shining out the third eye really freak out the sleeping neighbors.
But you probably shouldn’t do anything to freak out the neighbors. Just build your flying cat and have fun!
thank you for sharing such an awessome post