Thanks for the best show in a long time, Walker.

White-spotted geckos

Armadillo lizards

African giant millipedes

African emperor scorpions

Madagascar hissing cockroaches

South American pink-toed tarantulas

Ball pythons

2 albino rat snakes (aka “Bubblegum rat snakes”)

Blood red legged tarantula

Feeder crickets

All these animals.. together??? How is this HUMANE?!?!?! How is this NATURAL??? I agree, there is just no way in H3LL that all these animals would co exist together (willingly) in nature! There is NO WAY OUT! In the wild, a RAT or other small animal being chased by a snake, has somewhere to hide. WTF is wrong with people??

Censorship is the suppression of ideas.

Animals are not ideas.

I am saddened that the Walker has jumped onto the “Animals as Art” bandwagon. I challenge each of us as artists, arts administrators, arts patrons and audiences to communicate and support artistic expression in ways that do not enslave those who cannot make choices or speak for themselves. ( animal or human).

My suggestion is to NOT visit this exhibit, tell your friends to boycott the Walker. Or take a kindergarten class to the free areas every day, make sure each child uses their public bathroom several times, flushes frequently, and washes their hands under running water for the recommended 80 seconds, brown bag their lunches and snacks and stuff the Walker’s wastebaskets with the resulting garbage, let the kids exclaim in loud, shrill voices how disgusting they think the exhibit is, using those cute epithets only children use. But whatever you do, don’t spend a penny there!

I’d like to see the citation about the misquoting of the Humane Society. Is there a link or a publication?

Paul

1. Will the Walker publish a complete inventory of the animals, living and dead, used to create this exhibit, and where they were procured and how they were killed. This includes the pieces such as the elephant and tiger that were fabricated specifically for this exhibit out of cow, rabbit and, I believe, cat, as well as the hundreds? thousands? of bats hung from the aircraft facsimile.

2. How many is too many?

3. In recent years the following “artistic expressions” involvling animals occurred. Which ones would the Walker have NOT approved on ethical grounds and (if any) why not:

a. Toronto- a video tape of a cat tortured to death to be exhibited as performance art

b. University of California- a chicken beheaded with a hachet in art class

c. live fish displayed in a blender with fully operational power switch available to museum guests

A few comments:

According to Walker comments above, “Minneapolis Animal Control (which provided us with an exhibition permit for the non-native breeds in the exhibition). These organizations both reviewed the artwork and deemed that it was humane and respectful of the animals involved.”

I spoke with the animal control officer who inspected the “Theater” exhibit and she never “deemed that it was humane and respectful of the animals involved”, she only inspected it for code compliance. Further, had she been aware that the species might prey upon each other she would not have issed the permit and she was unaware of the extensive

use of dead animals used elsewhere in the exhibit.

Censorship is the supression of ideas. Animals are not ideas they are as real as we are.

No act of self expression is worth the life or liberty of another.

Now there’s a piece of art I’d be interested in.

BTW- it turns out that the humane society is not backing this exhibit up as “humane and respectful,” in fact they say that that was a misquote- as they were misinformed that there would be animals FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES on display and allowed to suffer and DIE! The officer that did the inspection only stated that the exhibit case met code requirements.

And not that I was a patron of Bruce’s store, but I will certainly tell everyone I know that may consider shopping at Twin City Reptiles to boycott that unsensitive jerk’s store.

Yours passionately,

Another Veterinarian