{"id":122298,"date":"2021-02-01T15:45:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T14:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=122298"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:22:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:22:00","slug":"clinical-ethicist-erwin-kompanje-stuffs-dead-gulls-in-his-living-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/02\/01\/clinical-ethicist-erwin-kompanje-stuffs-dead-gulls-in-his-living-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinical ethicist Erwin Kompanje stuffs dead gulls in his living room"},"content":{"rendered":"

How are Erasmus University employees getting through this Covid crisis? Have they taken up new hobbies? Do they organise pub quizzes via Zoom? Over the past year, Erwin Kompanje (62), who works as a clinical ethicist at the Erasmus MC\u2019s Intensive Care ward, has prepared 400 birds for the scientific collection of Natural History Museum Rotterdam. \u201cI\u2019m particularly fascinated by run-of-the-mill species.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Erwin Kompanje prepares dead birds for the scientific collection of Natural History Museum Rotterdam.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The dining room table at the Kompanjes is covered with a plastic tablecloth. On it \u2013 side by side with the fruit bowl \u2013 lies a herring gull that died after an accident in Alkmaar. The left side of its body shows serious injuries, and one of the bird\u2019s legs is bruised. Kompanje was called after the animal had been put down by the vet. He regularly prepares gulls as specimens, and with birds of this size, he might as well do it on his dining room table, at home in Barendrecht. While Kompanje shows how he removes the gull\u2019s skin with his bare hands and a scalpel, his wife and son move around the table to put on the kettle or grab a late lunch.<\/p>\n

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Kompanje in the midst of skinning the herring gull. <\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>

McFlurry Hedgehog<\/h2>\n\t
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Lees meer<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t