Animal Cruelty

The collection explores the many ways in which humans can enact cruelty upon animals in order to condemn animal cruelty in all its distinct forms. Throughout the collection, there are many instances of animal cruelty. Alligators are kept and bred in captivity, chickens are fed to the gators, crabs are killed so their shells can be used for play, sheep are slaughtered, baby turtles are kidnapped moments after they hatch, oxen are worked to death on the Westward Trail, orangutans are kept in cages inside The Ice Palace, stingrays are sucked into wave machines and killed, and a cinnamon bear is shot. Although many of the characters are oblivious to the cruelties that they inflict on the animals around them, the characters who do feel an opposition to the cruelty linger even in the stories where animal cruelty is just a passing background image.

Some...