Constable: 'I consider myself an artist,' taxidermist says of mounted menagerie

A lush garden with a well-stocked koi pond welcomes guests to George and Slawa Swiderski's Palatine home, where majestic spaces showcase his stunning paintings, her beautiful photographs, their world-class collection of African art and a museum-worthy menagerie of more than a hundred dead animals.

You'd be hard-pressed to swing a dead leopard, which is readily available, without hitting a curvy-horned kudu antelope, a lion, a warthog, a musk ox, a zebra, a mountain goat, a baboon or any of the dozens of exotic birds that George Swiderski has transformed into trophies through his Old World Taxidermy business. He's stuffed and mounted everything from a hummingbird to an elephant.

The perfect setting for biweekly meetings of the Illinois & Chicago Chapter of Safari Club International, the house would cause some people to recoil at the thought of all those beautiful animals being killed and put on display.

“You know, times change,” says George Swiderski, who turns 76 in January. Acknowledging a growing critical attitude toward hunting and taxidermy, Swiderski says he thinks people don't understand what a big-game hunter does.

“There is nothing wrong if you do it legally and don't waste it,” he says. “Our first trip to Africa was 1990 and we just fell in love.”

The son of a forester in a Polish village, Swiderski lived through Nazi invaders, Russian soldiers and the Communist regime that trampled his freedom. As a young immigrant who followed his parents to the United States in 1960, Swiderski studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he concentrated on painting and sculpture - talents he puts to use in taxidermy

“I consider myself an artist. I like to experiment in many different mediums,” he says, cradling an ever-present pipe in his left hand and a lighter in his right. “I take beautiful stuff made by nature and I add my twist.”

In addition to creating animal trophies posed in nature settings, Swiderski has crafted tables, bars and art pieces from petrified wood, exotic lumber, “hippo ivory” and other natural materials.

The black rhino head is a gift from a friend who killed it back in the days when that was legal, as is a walrus and ostrich, which also were shot by friends. The springbok, a medium-sized antelope, was the first kill by his wife.

“We mounted a giraffe about a year ago,” Swiderski says, noting the animal had a gimpy leg, and authorities decided to offer it up to another hunter.

“I didn't want to shoot a giraffe,” he says, noting that hunting those docile creatures doesn't seem sporting enough for him.

Swiderski mounted an elephant head on a wall for a client. He charged $24,000 and said that he actually should have charged more. But he's never shot an elephant, mainly because that opportunity would cost about $80,000.

“It is an expensive sport,” he says. But Swiderski, former president of the local Safari Club chapter, says his group recently donated $15,000 for a school in Africa and notes that the international club had spent $7 million in conservation efforts in the past five years. Many of the animals he's killed and mounted, such as a porcupine or a tiny antelope, are plentiful pests, he says.

Even some of the most stunning creatures have populations bordering on overcrowding in some areas.

“Every hunter likes to have a zebra,” he says, noting the pair shot by he and his wife. They also have a matching pair of lions, with his wife bagging the female and he shooting the male. “You wouldn't believe how many people I know who have somebody in their family who was killed by a lion,” he adds.

In what looks like a garage behind their home, Antonio Naval, Swiderski's assistant for 26 years, gently peels the flesh from the hide of a white-tailed deer. The studio also mounts dogs, cats, reptiles and other pets. “I don't hunt,” says Naval with a shrug.

“Some people, and I do respect this, cannot take another life,” Swiderski says. The Swiderski's daughter, Krystyna, is an excellent shot, but she doesn't hunt.

“Some people like music. Some people like dancing,” Swiderski says. Hunting, killing and stuffing majestic animals evolved into his career, but he does have another collection that is all hobby.

“I also have 300 ties,” Swiderski says with a smile. “And you know how often I wear a tie?”