We Luv Video
Cruelty to Animals Is Cruelty
RECEIVED Wed., June 29, 2005
Dear Editor,
I was puzzled that Marc Savlov did not include any opinions by local animal rights activists in his review of Casuistry: The Art of Killing a Cat [“That Darn Documentary!,” Screens, June 24]. He may have learned that some of us heard about this notorious case four years ago through dozens of Internet stories. We are raising our voices now because some people continue to be confused about whether killing a cat is art, and this film seems as confused. The students charged with killing this cat claimed that they did it to show the hypocrisy of animal cruelty, which they then labeled as art. Let's be clear about this: Killling a cat is cruelty to animals and is no more defensible than battering a woman to show the hypocrisy of sexism. Both are crimes. A more compelling story for the filmmaker, and one that might actually save animals, occurs every day directly under his nose: that is, how humans treat the 9 billion animals we slaughter every year in this country for food. But as an activist I've learned that people are much more willing to see the cruelty in others' actions but not the complicity in our own.
I was puzzled that Marc Savlov did not include any opinions by local animal rights activists in his review of Casuistry: The Art of Killing a Cat [“That Darn Documentary!,” Screens, June 24]. He may have learned that some of us heard about this notorious case four years ago through dozens of Internet stories. We are raising our voices now because some people continue to be confused about whether killing a cat is art, and this film seems as confused. The students charged with killing this cat claimed that they did it to show the hypocrisy of animal cruelty, which they then labeled as art. Let's be clear about this: Killling a cat is cruelty to animals and is no more defensible than battering a woman to show the hypocrisy of sexism. Both are crimes. A more compelling story for the filmmaker, and one that might actually save animals, occurs every day directly under his nose: that is, how humans treat the 9 billion animals we slaughter every year in this country for food. But as an activist I've learned that people are much more willing to see the cruelty in others' actions but not the complicity in our own.
Ernest Samudio
