The Veterinary Anatomy and Pathology Museum has had to come out to defend itself following accusations by the public that it disrespected the bones of the recently deceased dog Pi Tia.
If you have missed out on the extraordinary goings on since the disappearance, and death, of Pi Tia, Chiang Mai University’s unofficial campus mascot, we highly recommend you catch up here.
Following Pi Tia’s death, his body was taken in by the Chiang Mai University’s veterinary faculty for an autopsy and it was soon announced that his bones would be honoured by being placed in the Veterinary Anatomy and Pathology Museum, which opened in March last year.
Recently a photograph was posted on social media of the forensics team at the museum smiling as they stood around the bones of Pi Tia. The caption read, “Pi Tia’s new home”. Immediately, Pi Tia’s fan club came out to denounce the vets for inappropriate smiling.
The Facebook page, CMU Vet Ana Path Museum therefore came out to clarify matters:
“The museum as well as the faculty have been accused of not honouring Pi Tia and we would like to clarify some matters and urge you to read this slowly and carefully so that you fully understand.” There were three points also made in the post, which CityNews has taken the liberty to edit:
1. The museum’s job is to prepare the bones for display and we began to do so immediately after the autopsy, with the permission of the admin of Pi Tia’s Facebook page. When we first received Pi Tia, he was decomposing and it was urgent for us to immediately take steps and it took us one week to clean his bones and work on putting his skeleton together for display.
2. When we took the photo, we were not smiling because Pi Tia was dead. We were smiling in pride at such an excellent job. We knew that Pi Tia would become a very popular draw at the museum with so many people wanting to come and see his bones and show respect. We therefore believe that we have done the best job we have done in our 20 years. Because he was so beloved, one of our doctors even took time off regular work to volunteer on this project. We wanted this to be the most perfect job, and we did it. Sometimes you can take shortcuts and use glue to stick bones together, but we didn’t. We strung and sewed them together. Every single piece of bone is intact. This is something we are very proud of. Please understand.
3. We have been accused of finishing the job too fast, with some people implying that we are covering evidence. Please use your brain a little. If we wanted to destroy the evidence we would have cremated him. We invite everyone to come and look at his bones, to take pictures, to visit. This is not hiding evidence.
The page ended with a plea, “The museum would like to inform everyone that we work for the public, and we have many students and visitors who are genuinely interested in what we do. We must work in accordance to science because we are a source of public knowledge. Therefore we ask that you curb your criticism and consider the damage you do to our reputations and our hard work.”