We Wish These Knitted Dissection Models Could Be Used Instead Of Real Animals

For some reason, the dissected fetal pig made out of yarn isn't such a hit.

People love the disemboweled knitted frog. They can't get enough of the woolen rat, splayed up the middle, hand-crafted organs on display. 

But the pink yarn pig -- as cute, creepy, weird and wonderful as it is -- just doesn't get a lot of takers.

"It might be because it is less familiar," Emily Stoneking, the artist who came up with these brilliant, hand-made dissection models, said. "Or maybe because the word ‘fetal’ makes some people a little uncomfortable."

Stoneking came up with the idea for knitting approximations of dissected animals about eight years ago.

The Vermont-based artist has always been taken with vintage medical drawings, but "but I am terrible -- and I mean terrible -- at drawing. So instead, I thought I could do something similar, but in wool," she says.

She's gotten a load of attention since. 

The models -- sold in Stoneking's aKNITomy Etsy store -- have been featured on basically every website that caters to the whimsically and/or nerdily inclined.

Stoneking's gotten so much attention over the last years, in fact, she claims her mother's started wondering just what in the world is going on here.

"She is very supportive, but cannot fathom why someone would want to purchase something like this," Stoneking told HLN.  

We can: they're fantastic.

But, alas, they aren't a substitute for the flesh and blood and guts animals on which they're based.

The models aren't straight replicas. Rather, they are suggestive of their organic counterpoints, with features -- like the brightly colored organs -- designed to be pleasing to the eye, instead of teaching, say, exactly what an actual eye looks like when it's been all cut up.

And if you are inclined to read an anti-animal testing into the specimens, well ... these knitted creations certainly honor the animals whose lives are given over to the dissection tray, and Stoneking "would never condone superfluous or unnecessary animal testing."

But she is also impressed with the useful (to humans) advances that have been gained, thanks to the study of lab animals, such as possible treatments for diseases like Parkinson's and diabetes, or developing the ability to grow human organs inside pigs, that would be transplanted back into humans. 

Yes, we're back to the pig, who has done so much for us humans, without nearly enough love or appreciation in return.

You definitely want to check out the aKNITomy Etsy shop. 

And get in touch at arin.greenwood@huffingtonpost.com if you have an animal story to share!