9,000 butterflies disturbingly killed in the name of art

Admission to artist Damien Hirst's career-spanning retrospective at London's Tate Modern was $22, but the actual cost was much higher: 9,000 butterflies. That's the number of winged insects killed during the 23-week exhibit "In and Out of Love," which featured two windowless rooms full of (briefly) live butterflies whose lifespans were shortened from nine months in the wild to "between a few hours and several days" at the museum. "There would be national outcry if the exhibition involved any other animal, such as a dog," says the RSPCA, a British animal-welfare group. "Butterflies … deserve to be treated with kindness." Hirst is no stranger to formaldehyde-scented controversy: He previously passed a dead shark and a half-dissected cow off as art. [Source]

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