Abstract

While artisits were engaged in volunteering at a public animal shelter, they couldn’t help but wonder if they could use their artistic work to do something to help the animals. Animals in the public animal shelters come from a variety of sources; some were born strays and others were abandoned by their owners and were later captured and thrown into the shelter by the sanitation team. Therefore, this study will dicuss animal welfare and animal rights, specifically regarding the welfare of companion animals in public animal shelters, and the superficial view Euthanasia provides, through paintings, video recordings and installation art pieces to show the artists’ reactions before and after their companion animals in the public animal shelters were executed through “Animal Euthanasia”. In addition, it will discuss the pain and suffering companion animals go through in public animal shelters, to express how the way people treat companion animals is dispensable and irresponsible. In the thesis,the creator uses the concepts of “gaze” and “otherness” to serve as a creative text in his work. With “Gaze”, the author himself views the public animal shelter to observe the animals desire for emotion, trust in others and how in their last leg of life, they still project their emotional exchange with people. With “Otherness” the author takes the standpoint of another person to see how the average person relates to the cats and dogs in their life, how people relate to dogs and cats and how during the allocation of resources or environment, animals are often a forgotten and oppressed group.People often use the concept of “otherness” to separate the emotions between animals and thenselves, thus disregarding the needs of the animals. Through this thesis, the artists hopes that the public will face the situations and mental stress stray animals and companion animals in public animal shelters must face, realize the responsibility and commitment placing a collar on an animals body entails, so that they may adhere to that commitment till the animals last days.

Keywords：animal welfare, animal shelters, euthanasia, memory, gaze