A Taxidermist With The Right Stuff -- Oregon Man Wins National Prize With His Wildlife Scene

DAIRY, Ore. - When Mitch Cain really gets wound up talking about his work, he discusses things like nostril wings, nictitating membranes, septums and the color of underlips.

"You've got to know something about anatomy and muscle structure," explains Cain, who is neither a surgeon nor a mortician.

Actually, he probably has more in common with Dr. Frankenstein, but Cain doesn't create monsters. A taxidermist, he brings everything from large mouth bass to elk and bighorn sheep to artistic "life."

"That's what I want to be known as, as an artist," says Cain.

He's earning that reputation.

The 32-year-old Cain won the 1995 National Taxidermists Association Award of Excellence for a life-size black bear watching a pair of skittery squirrels. That same exhibit earlier came in second in the Oregon Association of Taxidermists show. Cain took the judge's detailed critique seriously, made the minor but telling changes, and traveled to Missouri to win his national award.

"It paid off. It was worth the effort," says Cain.

At the state competition, the bear was named the most artistic entry, and Cain earned two first places for two different pronghorn antelope.

Entering taxidermist competitions is part of Cain's conscious effort to upgrade his work, learn new techniques and develop a following of customers willing to pay for his expertise.

"I believe you have to compete to do the quality work," he says. "There's some really good quality, but there's also a lot of slop. I think that's because people don't get out there and learn."

Cain has learned to respect sometimes obscure details, such as the nictitating membranes (the inner eyelid that helps to keep the eye clean) and septums (the thin partition between two soft masses of tissue).

"Detail in nature is really subtle," explains Cain. A lifelong hunter, he's developing a fine eye, and appreciation, for finicky subtleties, like an ear that's alert to sounds or eyes flicked to pick up some movement.

"I like my mounts to be doing something." He says. "This deer, he's looking up the hill, sniffing," he explains pointing to a completed mount.

Cain began doing taxidermy after trying and abandoning other careers. He earned a bachelor's degree in animal science from Oregon State University, then took an associate's degree in diesel technology from Oregon Institute of Technology. Both times, the available work wasn't satisfying.

While at OSU, he joined the rodeo team and competed in bareback competition with dreams of going professional. But a series of accidents nullified those hopes. While recovering from one injury, he took a short class on mounting pheasants. In the late 1980s, when he worked for the Bureau of Land Management, he practiced evenings and weekends, read guides and watched videos on taxidermy.

His hobby developed into a full-time business in 1991. His studio and work area is in a building adjacent to his home off Highway 140 about 18 miles west of Klamath Falls.

"It doesn't seem to matter," he says of his out-of-town location. "If you do quality work, that's the main thing."

While the basic commercial deer and elk heads, and even large fish, make up the bulk of his work, Cain envisions a future with artistic dioramas, like the life-sized cougar with its teeth ripping into a terrified deer, or his award-winning black bear.

"I did this as a competition mount," he explains of the bear. "Rather than just having it stand there, I wanted it to be doing something. I wanted it in its natural habitat, and I also wanted more than just one animal."

Customers typically face a 12- to 14-month wait. Prices range from $200 to $5,000, with a cost of about $425 for a standard deer head mount, which might require 15 hours of work, to around $2,000 for a life-sized cougar, which takes 45 to 60 hours.

"I do taxidermy and I hunt," says Cain of his life. "I don't have time to do anything else. I love my job."