Why Not Eat Your Pet? is a collection of work depicting the atrocities inflicted on animals, primarily focusing on the inconsistent standards we use to value or devalue animals. It challenges the absurd justifications used to condone these heinous acts.

Gale Hart’s work raises awareness of our prioritization of animals based on our attachments to them—sometimes going as far as considering our pets as children. Yet, we allow other animals to be treated in ways that we would find unimaginable and unacceptable for our own animal companions.

There is no justification for cruelty, and as Hart risks using humor as an antidote, there’s really nothing funny here. Through sculptures utilizing found objects, striking black and white graphics, and startling color paintings, Why Not Eat Your Pet? is a series that dares to compare our pets to all the other animals we eat, experiment on, wear, and use for entertainment. The intent is to express animals’ pain and suffering, not with shock or gore, but with a work of art that drives a message so poignant that one can’t help but think, and hopefully, be moved to care.

Why Not Eat Your Pet? is more than a lone artist making a statement. It is an attempt to bring together two worlds, art lovers and animal lovers, hopefully cross-pollinating the power and beauty of each—ultimately helping patrons of the arts appreciate animals and vice versa.

Why Not Eat Your Pet? is on view at Exploding Head Gallery in Sacramento, California, March 3 through April 2. For information on upcoming shows contact Gale Hart at info@whynoteatyourpet.com, and to see a sample gallery of her works visit www.whynoteatyourpet.com.