Stuffed Animals, Here & There: Truck Grilles

"They're Soft and Cuddly, So Why Lash Them to the Front of a Truck?" asks a 2005 article in the New York Times.

Are you kidding? I say. Because they love it! 

Photo ^ by Robert Marbury, rogue vegan taxidermist

From the NYT article:

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the artist in residence at New York City's Department of Sanitation, said that when she noticed the animals on garbagemen's trucks in the late 1970's,
she "felt they were like these spirit creatures that were accompanying them on this endless journey in flux.
. . . I always felt, with these creatures that they withdrew from the garbage and refused to let go of, that there was an act of rescue involved."

That is certainly true for Julio Hernandez, a laborer for Aspen Tree Specialists in Brooklyn.

The GMC chipper-truck he rides in is graced with 11 figurines, each defective in one way or another -- Hulk Hogan with both hands missing, a Frankenstein monster with a hole in his head, a nearly disintegrated black rubber rat.
"People throw them out because they're broken," Mr. Hernandez, 38, said in Spanish. "They catch my attention."

Mr. DiVittorio, 27, said, "I don't see anybody that wouldn't be a halfway decent person putting something on their truck."