Kadie Salfi Apex-Predator | Body Parts

September 3 - October 29 | Opening Reception Friday, September 3, 5-8pm

Humans are the world’s leading apex predators. But instead of maintaining the health of ecosystems as other apex predators do, humans are destroying the world’s natural balance by killing millions of animals every year at a rate that is unsustainable and irreversible. More than 100million sharks are killed annually for their fins. Rhinoceros are killed for their horns, eagles are killed for feathers, wings and talons, and on and on. The illegal wildlife trade is the third largest illegal trade in the world, at $20 billion a year trailing only narcotics and arms. The trade generates a vicious cycle: the illegal killings make the animals rarer, so they become more valuable, stimulating more killings.

In the same way that we are consuming our virgin forests and depleting our freshwater supplies, we are destroying entire populations of animals without considering the local and global effects. It is one thing to kill an animal for food and clothing in a humane and sustainable way, using the whole animal, but it is quite another— a form of animal genocide— to mutilate animals for specific body parts, often leaving them to waste painfully and die.

When will we realize that what we are doing is not sustainable and will affect the health of the planet, which in turn threatens us?

 To view a PDF of the complete catalog for the exhibit CLICK HERE.

Kadie Salfi has been the 2009/10 Peter Kahn Family Fellow. Sales from Kadie Salfi's art will support the fellowship, and also 5% of all sales proceeds will be donated to WildAid, and organization whose mission is to "end the illegal wildlife trade within our lifetimes"