Well, I just had my first field trip for Uni, which involved seeing three art galleries in the space of three hours.
It was pretty good, except for one thing. One of the "cutting edge" galleries included some films in their exhibit. I knew I should be worried when I read a plaque outside the film room door that said, "The following footage may offend some viewers. The art gallery does not condone cruelty to animals."
Oh dear, right?
Right. Well, the film in question was some sort of experiment, in which a goldfish bowl (with a living goldfish inside it) was filled with lemonade. So, the poor thing was struggling around in the lemonade, and the people conducting the experiment siphoned out a little lemonade at a time until there was almost nothing left. At which point the poor fish was still flapping around feebly. (Yes, fish can flap).
Then, they filled it back up with water, which was horrible to watch as the fish now appeared dead and was being pushed around horribly. It just lay there, floating at the top, and just as I was thinking that it couldn't get much worse, they stuck a battery in, zapped it and it "woke up" and started swimming. At which point I was ready to storm out to the reception in disgust and make a complaint. I'm actually still considering making some form of official complaint, but I need to get my thoughts sorted out, so I don't sound like some teenage girl on a blog rant. (Which is probably what I sound like here, right?)
I know that a lot of people will probably say,
"But it's just a goldfish"
Well, in my opinion, it doesn't matter what sort of animal it is, they deserve to be treated respectfully. Next time, it could be, "It's just a mouse" "It's just a rabbit" "it's just a dog"
I don't care what the gallery says, the fact that they're even showing the film is condoning it. How many people will see it and think,
"Hey, that looks cool. You can drown a fish in lemonade, put it back in water, zap it with a battery and everything's okay. I wanna see if that really works!!!"
And I want to know exactly when animal cruelty became a legitimate form of artistic expression. I mean, I knew that "White Dot On White Canvas" was pushing it a little as far as the realm of "what is art?" is concerned, but this is just ridiculous.
Excuse me for the ranting, it's just that animal cruelty is one of the things that makes me extremely mad. They're completely helpless and at our mercy. Much like children, child abuse being the other topic that really upsets me too. But don't even get me started on that.
On another note, in South Australia recently, the RSPCA took 60 dogs away from a person, due to the fact that they were neglected and many had blood poisoning, which they had been untreated for. They were in such bad condition that all 60 had to be put down. And apparently another 60 puppies were seized and taken into the RSPCA's care.
And you know what? According to the news report I saw, the person responsible for it will go to jail for a maximum of a year. Makes me sick.

*cough* rant over. Sorry.

EDIT 19-03-2007
I've also heard about another thing that angers me greatly. Last year (I believe, at least, but it may have been at the end of 2005) here in Australia there was an incident where a kangaroo needed to be moved by some police officers. So, as one does, they decided to PULL IT BEHIND A CAR. Because I know that's the best way to transport a live kangaroo, right? Pssht. No surprise that the poor thing was traumatised. Oh, and died. Didn't see that coming. At all.
Anyway, the point of this is that the RSPCA quite rightly charged them with animal cruelty. And now, the police department (or at least some people high up within the police department) want the RSPCA's right to arrest revoked. They say it should be left to "people who know what they're doing."
Yeah, because those police officers knew what they were doing when they towed the kangaroo.
I mean, what's going to happen if there's no one to hold people accountable for mistreating animals? I really think that you need an impartial body to make these decisions, rather than it being routed through the police themselves. I have a nasty feeling that if they had been the ones in charge, this particular case would have been hushed up. But hey, maybe I'm just a cynic.

And on yet another note, I've seen something that makes me both happy and sad. I recently saw a report on an elephant refuge in Nigeria (please forgive me if that's wrong, it's extremely late and I'm extremely tired) where they're looking after orphaned baby elephants. The fact that these people are putting so much work into looking after them makes me so glad. I have so much respect for people who do things like that. Myself, I think I would have a break down.
The part that upsets me is the circumstances under which these elephants have been orphaned. Most of their mothers were killed by poachers. And, even worse, many of the poachers deliberately injured the babies. They have done some horrifically cruel things. I mean what kind of person can see a baby elephant, and think,
"Hmm, I'm going to mutilate its ears for fun."
I don't know how people like that live with themselves. I mean, if you saw these poor things. People are killing their mothers for ivory, then mutilating the babies and leaving them to die. It sickens me. And I know I've said that a lot in this journal.
I really want to reinforce how much I respect the people who go out of their way to try and improve things, rather than just getting angry and ranting like I do. To be honest, I don't think that I could cope with seeing those kinds of atrocities first-hand. I would quite honestly have a nervous breakdown, I think. Maybe I'm selfish, but I just couldn't handle it. So I admire those who can, or those who put aside their disgust to actually do something about it.
I'm sorry it's been so negative, but like I've said before, issues like this really anger me.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I'm sorry if I started going in circles. Like I said, it's late and I'm ready to pass out from exhaustion.

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