(ANIMAL ABUSE) AMSTERDAM — Dutch artist Katinka Simonse kills and mutilates animals in the name of performance art. Her blatant lack of respect for life has enraged animal activists and the Dutch animal welfare political party, Partij Voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals). Read on for Simonse’s disturbing form of “art,” and why many are petitioning against the Dutch government’s shortcomings on animal abuse. — Global Animal

By Colleen McDuling

But is this art? A Dutch woman by the name of Katinka Simonse (Tinkebell) has been killing animals for her art exhibitions. This form of art, known as performance art, is highly controversial and involves a live presentation by the artist.

Simonse, 31, has caused outrage amongst animal rights supporters globally. She put 100 hamsters in tiny transparent plastic balls and made them run around a gallery, she threatened to put baby chicks through a shredder, she writes numbers on snails in her garden to keep track of them, she butchers dogs and dismembers them and she kills chicks and puts hooks in them in order to hang them up. A disturbing video of this may be seen here. Warning: Graphic content. Apparently, the hamsters were removed from her. Simply entering her name or her alias into any search engine such as Google, will reveal the myriad of atrocities that she has committed against the animal kingdom in the name of her art form. A few may be found here courtesy of piaberrend.org. Warning: Graphic content.

Of particular note is that fact that Simonse, not wanting to pay for her sick companion cat to be humanely euthanased by her veterinarian, decided to take matters in to her own hands and killed the cat herself by breaking the neck. The cat was skinned and the skin made into handbags. In an interview with the Dutch TV program, De Wereld Draait Door (The Turning World), Simonse clearly shows no remorse for her actions towards the cat and openly demonstrates to the interviewer how she broke the cat’s neck. She laughs her way through the interview. The video may be seen here. It is in Dutch. Simonse maintains that the cat was depressed and the killing was simply “mercy-killing.” The cat’s name was Pinkeltjie and was only 3 years old.

The Dutch animal rights and welfare political party, Partij Voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals), in a statement said that Simonse was disturbed, obsessive and was using this perverted form of art as a means of drawing attention to herself and as a means of sensationalism. They further stated that this is a clear example of where the animal welfare law in the Netherlands falls short, and have petitioned both Houses of Parliament for stricter laws and harsher sentences to be given to those who break the law.

Hate mail sent to Simonse has been published in a book called “Dearest Tinkebell.” The book is a joint project with fellow artist Coralie Vogelaar, who collected all the data. Published in 2009, the work itself is controversial. Vogelaar, who researched the origins of the mails, included the actual hate mails that Simonse received as well as personal information (photographs, blogs, addresses) from those who sent the hate mails. All this information was taken from the web. The majority of the hate mail (approximately 80%) came from America; other countries include The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Russia, UK and Brazil.

Two petitions are underway to attempt to bring Simonse to justice that are both directed at the Dutch government.

Perhaps, Simonse will be taken into custody and given the care that she clearly needs. Updates will be given to Global Animal as and when they arise.