In Photos: Pampanga toy factory’s realistic plushies for grieving pet owners

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Herminhilda del Rosario poses for a picture with a realistic pet plushie of her departed dog Luna, at her home in Hagonoy town, Bulacan province, Philippines, March 16, 2023. (Reuters/Lisa Marie David)

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MANILA — Filipino toy maker David Tan is flooded with orders from grieving pet owners who want to memorialise their dogs, cats, hamsters and rabbits with stuffed toys or “plushies.”

It’s the details that matter at the Pampanga Teddy Bear Factory.

Renditions of real-life pets seem they are posing for a well-choreographed photo.

Tan and a team of 20 employees use photos sent by customers to create life-like replicas of their deceased pets using synthetic fur that is airbrushed to recreate colours and markings of the animals.

A worker paints the fur of a plushie.

Airbrushing makes the pet plushie’s color more believable.

Fixing the stuffing.

The process is different from taxidermy, which preserves the body of the animal, said Tan, owner of Pampanga Teddy Bear Factory.

“It removes that ‘ick’ factor. This is actually one hundred percent, genuinely a stuffed toy,” he said.

Workers make customized pet plushies and clothing at the Pampanga Teddy Bear Factory.

Each plushie costs about P3,500 (US$ 65), which 38-year-old dog lover Jaja Lazarte said is a price worth paying for the memory of her Shih Tzu.

Jaja Lazarte holds the realistic pet plushie of her departed dog Kenken as she poses for a photo with her two other dogs, at her home in Caloocan City.

Herminhilda with a pet plushie of her departed dog Luna.

“Although his ashes are here, and his memories are here, it’s so much better to see something that really resembles him,” Lazarte said. — Photos by Reuters/Lisa Marie David

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In Photos: Pampanga toy factory’s realistic plushies for grieving pet owners
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