San Fran proposes law to ban animal cruelty for art

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Still fuming over the San Francisco Art Institute's recent exhibitionof videos showing six different animals being bludgeoned to death, thecity's Animal Welfare Commission is proposing a law that would treatart that abuses animals like child pornography: If an animal is harmedfor the purpose of making art, it would be a criminal offense todisplay or possibly even keep in San Francisco. Even if the animalcruelty happens outside San Francisco, artists could still facecriminal charges in the city under the proposal."It doesn't have to be an issue of art or free speech; this is basedon what's already illegal," said Commissioner Christine Garcia, whoproposed the measure, at the commission's meeting last week. "Ifthere's something out there that's so horrendous, we shouldn'tencourage an industry to glamorize it, to publicize it, to profit offof it."...Critics say Costa Rican artist Guillermo Vargas' 2007

installation,"You Are What You Read," starved a stray dog to death while onlookerswatched. (The piece, which was shown in Managua, Nicaragua, involvedtying a dog to a wall of a gallery.) But a Humane Societyinvestigation found evidence to support that the animal was taken offthe street and fed by the artist. It escaped after one day.-- full story:http://www.sfweekly.com/2008-05-14/news/animal-welfare-commission-wants-to-outlaw-cruel-art http://pets.Fortheanimals7/join http://www.myspace.com/fortheanimals7