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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGerman Court Orders Artist Not To Kill Puppies Onstage
A German court has ordered an artist not to go through with plans to kill a pair of puppies as part of a performance, according to The Guardian. The unidentified German artist planned to strangle two puppies on stage and perform a funeral rite for them as a way of protesting the killing of sled dogs in Alaska and hunting dogs in Spain when they are deemed too old or otherwise unfit to work.
The artist argued that the German constitution unconditionally guarantees artistic freedom, but was overruled by the Berlin administrative court. Judicial officials maintain that it is illegal to harm animals during the course of a live performance.
The piece, entitled Death and Metamorphosis, was to be performed in a small theater in Berlins Spandau district. The artist planned to strangle two puppies using cable-ties, then conduct a funeral rite involving a giant gong, according to German magazine The Local.
The ruling coincided with the announcement by a pair of students at Berlins University of the Arts earlier in the week that they were planning an art project that would involve the filmed decapitation of a sheep. The two artists claim that the work is a statement on humanity and democracy and are conducting an internet poll asking whether respondents want to see the sheep killed or spared.
MORE...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/03/german-court-orders-artist-not-to-kill-puppies-onstage/
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)This "artist" is nuts.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)"Art" my ass.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)Here, use this if you must:
...and forget the "misunderstood artist" bullshit.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)Art my ass.
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)I had planned to shoot a rocket launcher at that German artist to protest the killing of people with drones in Pakistan.
Damn censorship
mac56
(17,606 posts)I nearly puked when I read this. "Protesting the killing of sled dogs in Alaska and hunting dogs in Spain"? Bullshit. This asshole is a sociopath.
RevStPatrick
(2,208 posts)Arkansas Granny
(31,772 posts)Duppers
(28,218 posts)some people would call snot on a wall art.
Poll_Blind
(23,864 posts)PB
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)will check when i get home
snooper2
(30,151 posts)Scout
(8,625 posts)Duppers
(28,218 posts)Snuff art indeed and sick sadism, imo.
Javaman
(62,985 posts)ashling
(25,771 posts)Wasn't Hitler an artist? Maybe that whole WWII and holocaust think was just performance art.
Throd
(7,208 posts)TheFeinsch
(2 posts)What happens to dogs during the Iditarod includes death, bloody diarrhea, paralysis, frostbite (where it hurts the most!), bleeding ulcers, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, kennel cough, broken bones, torn muscles and extreme stress. At least 142 dogs have died in the race, including two dogs who froze to death in the brutally cold winds.
Veterinary care during the Iditarod is poor. Here's just one example: Veterinarians have allowed dogs with kennel cough to race in the Iditarod even though dogs with this disease should be kept warm and given lots of rest. It's dangerous for the dogs with this disease to exercise with any intensity. Strenuous exercise can cause lung damage, pneumonia and even death. Kennel cough is a highly contagious disease that normally lasts from 10 to 21 days.
Iditarod dogs are beaten into submission. Jane Stevens, a former Iditarod dog handler, describes a dog beating in her letter published by the Whitehorse Star (Feb. 23, 2011). She wrote: "I witnessed the extremely violent beating of an Iditarod racing dog by one of the racing industry's most high-profile top 10 mushers. Be assured the beating was clearly not within an 'acceptable range' of 'discipline'. Indeed, the scene left me appalled, sick and shocked. After viewing an individual sled dog repeatedly booted with full force, the male person doing the beating jumping back and forth like a pendulum with his full body weight to gain full momentum and impact. He then alternated his beating technique with full-ranging, hard and fast, closed-fist punches like a piston to the dog as it was held by its harness splayed onto the ground. He then staggeringly lifted the dog by the harness with two arms above waist height, then slammed the dog into the ground with full force, again repeatedly, all of this repeatedly."
During the 2007 race, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Jon Saraceno wrote in his column in USA Today, "He [Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight. Skinning them to make mittens. Or dragging them to their death."
Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective...A training device such as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective." He also said, "It is a common training device in use among dog mushers..." Former Iditarod dog handler Mike Cranford wrote in Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper: "Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in harnesses....."
Iditarod dog kennels are puppy mills. Most mushers have more than 50 dogs. Some have more than 100. Mushers breed large numbers of dogs and routinely kill unwanted ones, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, including those who have outlived their usefulness or have no economic value, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged, drowned or clubbed to death.
FOR MORE FACTS: Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org
uppityperson
(115,765 posts)What does this Iditarod screed have to do with this subject?
Ruby the Liberal
(26,260 posts)Way to weaken the message about abused animals. No wonder so few listen.
undeterred
(34,658 posts)Skip Intro
(19,768 posts)themselves and do the human race a favor.
Sick f'n people in this world...
flvegan
(64,553 posts)kinda-sorta knew his court case would get more attention than any show he might put on strangling puppies. I've seen this story posted in many places, garnering much outrage.
He/she is either a complete moron, or pretty brilliant.