Citing animal exploitation and cruelty, at least two dozen activists in NYC staged a protest at “Fly By Night,” a month-long art exhibit during which 2,000 pigeons wearing LED lights are forced to fly in the dark over the East River, potentially subjecting them to stress, disorientation and drowning in the frigid water below. Pigeons, who have poor night vision, only fly during daylight hours.

Protest organizer Nora Constance Marino, President of the Animal Cruelty Exposure Fund, told TheirTurn that the group’s message is very clear: “Animals are not art exhibits.” Marino’s efforts resulted in a New York Times article about the protest, which opens with a strong animal rights message: ‘No one asked 2,000 pigeons if they wanted to have lights strapped to their legs in the name of art. Nor did anyone ask the birds how they felt about being shooed from their homes at dusk and sent flying up to illuminate the Brooklyn sky.”

Pigeons have limited vision in the dark, but they are forced to “Fly By Night” for art exhibit

Protester Elena Natale said that several ticket-holders decided to boycott the event after activists explained why using live animals in  art exhibits is inhumane: “While most attendees put on their blinders as they walked past us, several open-minded people wanted to understand why we were protesting.”

“Fly By Night” Ticket holder breaks into tears after speaking to activists

In a post on the Facebook page of Creative Time, the arts organization that is funding the pigeon show, Karen Davis, President of the national avian advocacy group United Poultry Concerns, condemned the event: “Perhaps what strikes me most significantly about this Fly By Night exhibit is the part where the pigeons are trying to land and get rest, but are forced to fly even though they are bewildered, scared and exhausted. . . No one who respects pigeons and empathizes with them as fellow creatures would dream of mistreating them so meanly, strapping gadgetry to them, and putting them in danger.”

From left to right: Disgruntled pigeon, pigeon advocate Tina Trachtenburg

The use of live animals in art exhibits was recently addressed in a CounterPunch article critical of the practice written by Elliot Sperber, a New York-based writer and lawyer.

Sign the petition to end “Fly By Night.”

Post a comment on Creative Time’s Facebook page.

Tweet the organization that is producing the event, Creative Time, and the artist, Duke Riley.

Though pigeons have poor vision in the dark and fly only during the day, artist Duke Riley is attaching LED lights onto the legs of 2,000 of the birds and forcing them into the air at night, potentially subjecting them to stress, disorientation and drowning in the frigid water below.

Artist Duke Riley straps lights to pigeons’ legs and forces them to fly at night (Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

With the support of the non-profit public arts organization Creative Time, Mr. Riley is staging 18 “Fly by Night” shows over the East River in NYC from May 7 – June 12.

Bird advocates say that the stress of being forced to fly at night is exacerbated by the potentially blinding lights and the pigeon handlers’ use of poles to prevent the frantic birds from landing on the boat from which they are launched. In a NY Times review of the show, Roberta Smith states that “some [pigeons] regularly attempted to return to the boat only to be gently shooed away by their handlers.” During the performance, kayakers hired by Creative Time patrol the river for fallen birds – a tacit acknowledgment that the artist is putting the bird’s in harm’s way.

Pigeons have limited vision in the dark, but they are forced to fly for art exhibit (photo: Kathy Willens/AP)

“Taunting pigeons with a long pole? Forcing them to fly at night even though they cannot see in the dark? These are unwilling participants, and this is not art; it’s animal cruelty,” said artist Tina Trachtenburg, a NYC-based pigeon advocate who has dedicated her life to being a voice for the oft-marginalized bird.

Artist and pigeon advocate Tina Trachtenburg educates the public about pigeons

Creative Time, which produces the event, describes it as “a transcendent union of public art and nature” —  “At dusk, a massive flock of pigeons will elegantly twirl, swoop, and glide above the East River, as Riley orchestrates a series of performances occurring regularly throughout late spring. . . The pigeons will circle above the river as the sun sets over Manhattan, and small leg bands, historically used to carry messages, will be replaced with tiny LED lights, illuminating the sky.”

Duke Riley (photo: Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

Mr. Riley and Creative Time defend the use of pigeons, asserting that they “retained an avian veterinarian who helped establish proper protocols for the health and safety of keeping pigeons” and that an “independent animal advocacy monitor is on hand for all performances.” Animal rights activists, however, argue that the use of protocols and monitors don’t make the use of the pigeons any less inhumane.  “At dusk, these birds would be settled in for the night, not flying into the darkness and not wearing accessories to entertain humans,” said Trachtenberg. A Change.org petition to shut down Fly By Night has collected over 1,000 signatures in two days.

According to Creative Time, the artist will, at the conclusion of the show, “keep many of the pigeons as his pets.” The rest, the organization says, “will be returned to their original owners or be placed with local pigeon fanciers.” Advocates suspect that many of the pigeons will sent to operators of canned hunts.

“Fly By Night” is not Mr. Riley’s first art exhibit with pigeons. In 2013, he strapped black market Cuban cigars and cameras onto dozens of pigeons and forced them to fly 100 miles from Havana to Key West, Florida. The NY Times reported that many of the pigeons died or disappeared in Riley’s “Trading with the Enemy” art project.

Sign the petition to end “Fly By Night.”

Post a comment on Creative Time’s Facebook page.

Tweet the organization that is producing the event, Creative Time, and the artist, Duke Riley.

If you live in NYC, please participate in the protest organized by the Animal Cruelty Exposure Fund (ACEF) on Sunday, May 15th from 6:30 – 7:30 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

In June 2015, the art world took note when animal rights activists staged a protest at a gallery exhibiting live animals in New York City. Both the art press and the mainstream media reported on the controversy. One year later, that protest is referenced in a new article in the Financial Times about Maurizio Cattelan, an artist who is using live donkey in his exhibit at the Frieze Art Fair in NYC: “The US animal rights lobby is increasingly vociferous. Last year, they called out Gavin Brown’s NY Gallery for restaging Jannis Kounellis’s installation of 12 live horses. Is he [Maurizio Cattelan] not worried about protests?”

According to the Financial Times, the exhibit – entitled “Enter at Your Own Risk — Do Not Touch, Do Not Feed, No Smoking, No Photographs, No Dogs, Thank you” – features “a live donkey alone in a room lit by a baroque chandelier.”

Sole donkey to be exhibited at Frieze Art Fair in NYC

Cattelan claims that the donkey will have everything “it” needs, including the company of others: “I’m pretty sure it won’t feel lonely, with so many people passing by.”

https://youtu.be/kRHFAVaowP0

Cattelan is better known for using taxidermy in his art installations. According to his Wikipedia page, these “works are designed to connect humans and animals through the projections of human emotions which the former places on the latter.”

Maurizio Cattelan displays dead animals

Activists argue that animals – dead or alive – are not exhibits. “If we wouldn’t use a toddler in an art installation, then why should we use a donkey, who would be every bit as confused and out of place?” said Donny Moss of TheirTurn.net. “And if we wouldn’t stuff our grandmothers and suspend them from the ceiling, then why should we do the same to horses? Has our false sense of superiority over other animals given us license to do whatever we want with them? ”

The live donkey will be exhibited at the Frieze Art Fair on Randall’s Island Park from May 5 – 8.  Please contact Frieze to give the company feedback on the use of live animals at its art fair.

Frieze on Facebook
Frieze on Twitter
NYC office: +1 212 463 7488
Email: infonyc@frieze.com

On the afternoon of Ringling’s final two shows in New York City, dozens of activists blanketed the entrances to the Barclay’s Center to educate customers about animal cruelty in the circus.  During the protest, several patrons changed their mind about going inside.

John DiLeonardo, the president of Long Island Organizing for Nature (LION) and an organizer of the protest, showed hundreds of people entering the circus a bull hook, the weapon used by Ringling “trainers” to beat elephants into submission.

John Di Leonardo shows circus patrons a bull hook

Roberto Bonelli, a grassroots organizer with Animals Battalion, said that activists staged protests every day that Ringling performed from February 25th to March 6th.

Ringling protest organized by Animals Battalion and LION

In 2016, Ringling announced that the company will terminate the use of elephants in its circus by May and relocate all of the touring elephants to its “Conservation Center” in Florida. Despite pleas from advocacy groups worldwide, the company refuses to send its 42 elephants to a sanctuary. Instead, Ringling intends to continue breeding the elephants and using them for cancer research.

To find out how to help captive circus animals, please visit Ringling Beats Animals.

It was business as usual at the annual bull riding rodeo in NYC, with patrons greeting protesters with obscene gestures; accusing them of wearing leather shoes; and promising to eat “a juicy steak” after the show.

For the past decade, Professional Bull Riders (PBR) has, as a part of its national tour, staged a three day rodeo at Madison Square Garden in New York City. And, each year, animal rights activists have  protested at the entrance.

Animal rights activists stage three days of protests (Jan 15 – 17) at the bull riding rodeo at Madison Square Garden

While the majority of bull riding patrons who stopped to engage with the protesters during the three days of protests were hostile and defensive, a few attempted to convince them that the bulls are treated with great care because they earn a living for the riders. Activists in NYC say they have heard that before, as that is the same argument used by the horse-drawn carriage operators who drive their horses through the congested streets of midtown Manhattan.

Bull riders use weapons and drugs to make the animals buck

Learn more about bull riding cruelty from the organization leading the fight to expose it —  SHARK (Showing Animals Respect & Kindness)