Monuments of Compassion

Abstract

The term ‘monument of compassion' is introduced to describe the essential features of the Monument To Animals We Do Not Mourn, as well as other animal monuments. Installed in Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in New York, The Monument To Animals We Do Not Mourn is unconventional in its representation of a marginalized group (farm animals), its challenge to dominant cultural narratives concerning this group, its interactivity, and its atypical location. It is an artist-driven, dialogic monument of dissent, offering cemetery visitors the opportunity to consider the suffering of farm animals in the same space that they mourn their beloved companion animals. The monument extends compassion to farm animals and affirms their value as individual beings, worthy of a full and natural life. Visitors who resonate with the monument’s message are invited to leave a stone at its base. As the stones accumulate, they will be collected and used to create another monument of compassion for typically unmourned animals.