Take down your taxidermy – it's a disgrace | Philip Hoare

The global revulsion at the killing of Cecil the lion sits uncomfortably with a boom in stuffed specimens in hip galleries and restaurants

It is salutary to consider that the ultimate intended destination for Cecil the lion - and all his hunted companions - is to hang on a wall.

Salutary, since taxidermied specimens now adorn hip galleries, restaurants and homes, from east London to Brooklyn and Barcelona. Stuffed animals have become the lingua franca of a contemporary gothic, an eerie, Game of Thrones-ish design evocation of the mythical, the eldritch and the cabinet of curiosities.