If you were hoping to pick up a cat-skin rug for your mancave through the Kiwi auction site Trade Me, it seems you're out of luck. The last one has just been sold to the highest bidder for NZ$955 (~USD$800).
Andrew Lancaster, the taxidermist behind this monstrosity, told local media outlets he spotted the roadkill cat by the side of the road last month, and thought it looked nice enough to stuff.
"I was sort of in two minds about whether to do it and then I thought 'it's a perfect specimen'," Lancaster, a Brit by birth, told Stuff.co.nz. "So that was my first thought - just turn it into a rug like I do with the possums."
Many of Lancaster's creations end up on Trade Me — rabbits, weasels, magpies, even goldfish — but he says the cat-skin rug was a first for him.
"I usually sort of steer clear of cats and dogs because you get a lot of people who say they're pets and should be left alone and not stuffed," Lancaster said.
Many of the site's users felt he should have kept to that policy, blasting his "art" as "disgusting" and "sick." A rep for the anti-animal-euthanasia group SAFE called the rug "distasteful" and "disrespectful."
Others, however, were far more supportive, including one self-described "vegetarian animal lover and collector of vintage Victorian taxidermy."
"I'm not offended at all by this art installation and would encourage those that are offended by this to question themselves why," the user wrote. "[T]his was created from a long dead animal. Upcycling!"
[photos via Trade Me]