Painted Pets

Posted by Jennifer Copley Jun 13, 2008

Burton Silver and Heather Busch, the authors of Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics and Dancing with Cats, have come out with another book – Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics – which explores a new art movement – cat decoration. The book posits that certain owners are using their cats as canvasses, having artists decorate their pets with nontoxic dyes.

According to the authors, cats have been painted to look like clowns, fish, butterflies, pigs or even American flags, and one poor cat had a portrait of Charlie Chaplin painted on his backside. Cat-canvas art forms listed include Semiotic Anthropomorphism, Transmoggificationism, Retromingent Expressionism, Neo-Totemism and Avant Funk.

Pictures from the book were circulated online, generating controversy as to whether cat painting constitutes abuse of animals. However, Snopes.com claims that the book is purely satirical and that the pictures were probably doctored in Photoshop (Silver has refused to comment on the creation of the cat designs).

Although the pictures are a spoof, they’re also quite hilarious. JibJab offers a comprehensive set of photos from the book, including a rather unfortunate flag cat and a Siamese that has been dyed to match the tartan print of his owner’s kilt.

For more quirky cat stuff, see Dancing with Cats, Cat Circuses Make a Comeback and Cat Agility Contests.