PETA Wants to Turn the 'Silence of the Lambs' House into an 'Empathy Museum' Where People Can Wear Animal Skins

The four-bedroom, one-bath home is currently listed at $249,000

Photo: Keith Srakocic/AP

It puts the animal skin on, or else it gets the hose again.

Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have certainly come up with an interesting use for the hard-to-sell Pennsylvania home used as killer Buffalo Bill’s lair in The Silence of the Lambs: A museum to stir up sympathy for animals killed for their skins.

Scott and Barbara Lloyd listed the Layton, Pennsylvania (about 28 miles south of Pittsburgh), home for sale last summer, dropping their asking price from $300,000 to $250,000 earlier this month. The one-bathroom, four-bedroom home’s foyer, dining room and exterior were used in the 1991 film, but the pit and labyrinth sets were constructed on a soundstage.

The home has been frequently viewed, but no serious offers were forthcoming, at least until now. PETA released a statement Thursday saying that they’ve written to the real estate agent handling the home’s sale with a proposal: They want to turn the dwelling into an “empathy museum,” where visitors can wear animal skins. The group says that, by donning animal skins, people would be reminded that our four-legged friends are “made of flesh, blood and bone.”

We don’t recall that working out too well for Buffalo Bill, though.