Hamsters were not really mistreated, says judge
Kunstenares Tinkebell (Katinka Simonse) has been found not guilty of mistreating 95 hamsters. Back in 2008 the Society for the Protection of Animals and the police raided one of her exhibitions to free dozens of hamsters. The hamsters should only have been stuck in their balls for 30 minutes (apparently recommended) and in this case were stuck in them for four hours.
Since the judge and an Artis zoo vet could not determine whether the hamsters where in danger or not, Tinkebell got a fine of 950 euro, with 450 euro as a ‘suspended fine’. The gallery owner is also in the clear.
(Link: rtl.nl, Source image: Empathy.)
not guilty with a fine ? how does that work ?
The judge probably wanted to punish the people for wasting his/her time or took it up for the hamsters, who knows. They ‘got off’ with a fine.
[…] nonsense. Last year Dutch conceptual artist Tinkebell was found not guilty of animal cruelty for an exhibition with 95 hamsters in exercise balls, while she had killed her ‘depressed’ cat and turned it into a […]
[…] the snails special and even gives them personality. That is her explanation. Last year we had the hamsters going round and round for hours in balls that was judged OK after all by the courts, and then there’s always the famous cat hand bag […]
[…] Earlier Tinkebell exhibits centered around exposing the hypocrisy of animal lovers by doing the exact same thing they do to animals but within a completely different context. In one instance she made a leather purse, with the leather coming from her own cat. She also let hamsters run around a showroom while the animals were imprisoned in tiny plastic balls that she had purchased at a pet store, something for which she was prosecuted but ultimately acquited. […]