Dead Animals

A dog in the trash, a grimy bear tethered to the bumper of a delivery truck. Don’t be repulsed, these aren’t real animals, but discarded, stuffed ones that artists/writers/designers/publishers Shu Hung and Joe Magliaro discovered and photographed for their new book, Dead Animals.

The project began in 2004, when the pair was walking home through New York City’s Chinatown and encountered a battered, stuffed duck lying between two cars. Laughter borne out of relief that it wasn’t a real animal soon faded. “Thinking about these animals inevitably leads to thinking about the people who once loved them—what happened to them? Where are they now?” says Hung.

Hung and Magliaro have since relocated to a more authentic Chinatown (it’s called “Beijing”) and they brought the project with them. The number of their “dead animal” encounters increased dramatically in the Chinese capital, corresponding with the city’s high construction rate. As poor inhabitants of traditional hutong are kicked out of their homes to make way for shiny, new high-rises, the stuffed animals are left behind in the hasty move, often found amidst the rubble of razed buildings.

By this year, Hung and Magliaro collected enough photographs to publish a 37-page, limited edition book of 250 copies. Dead Animals can be purchased through their publishing company, Historical Fiction Press. Though Hung and Magliaro are finished photographing dead animals, they hope others will pick up the torch. They plan to launch a website (http://www.dead-animals.com ) for others to upload their own photos in an online “global archive of lost and abandoned stuffed animals.”