Scarlet elephant has animal lovers seeing red

[Greylyn58]

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A city agency that allowed a spray-painted elephant to appear at an art exhibit is now saying it will not issue permits for such events in the future.

The elephant, named Tai, was given a nontoxic paint job for the Thursday opening of the "Barely Legal" exhibit by British artist Banksy near downtown.

Cards handed out at the opening, which included such guests as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, read: "There's an elephant in the room. There's a problem we never talk about." The statement went on to say that many people live below the poverty line.

Ed Boks, head of the city's Animal Services Department, said that his agency issued permits for the elephant to appear -- to his chagrin -- and that he tried to have them revoked Friday on public safety grounds. But the exhibit was to end Sunday, and the revocation would have taken five days.

snip....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/17/painted.elephant.ap/index.html


I have to say, I'm all for supporting art exhibits, but this really disturbs me. It's one thing for a person to submit to this, they can say yes or no about doing it. This elephant didn't have that option.

[135th]

1. Not cool

They couldn't have just used a pink head dress or something similar? I get the idea, but I don't like it. It reminds me of an old Little Rascals where they painted stripes on a greyhound to make a "tiger".

[brook]

2. And more on ...

The Elephant in the room

Don't miss the cockroaches...or Peggy's pictures of the exhibit...or the information about how said Elephant was cared for during the show.

[lonestarnot]

3. Poor elephants. They have a terrible lot in life.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. I'm assuming she was not injured...the elephant?

Then what's the issue? Are we afraid she was humiliated? I think she's beautiful.


The 'dying baby chicks' comment in the article really got me. No, they don't dip baby chicks in dye anymore, they inject dye right into the eggs before they hatch
http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/32350


another article on the exhibit
http://cbs2.com/local/local_story_259120619.html

[alfredo]

5. They've been painting elephants throughout history.

[HuffleClaw]

6. painting an elephant is hardly 'cruelty'

keeping elephants in captivity IS.

[marions ghost]

7. when you look at what animals in captivity

endure, this is probably not high on the list of abuses. I doubt the elephant suffered much physically.

HOWEVER this does strike me as insensitive to the natural beauty of animals, and a crass thing to do.
Yuk.

I mean is it OK what they do to poodles? Why are animal rights activists not on top of that?

[beyurslf]

8. I wonder how many people dress up their dogs....