Exhibition that features live mice will make you squirm

ANIMAL rights activists are outraged after live mice were trapped underneath the flooring in a controversial art exhibit.

A CONTROVERSIAL exhibition that has shocked animal rights activists is facing backlash for putting live mice in the flooring.

Upon entry to the gallery for Prehysteria, presented at the Castle Fitzjohns in Manhattan, visitors are greeted with a checkerboard floor that has the built-in feature of 70 live mice that are placed in separate black boxes.

The mice are situated in tiny enclosures that are roughly a square foot in size, with water, food pellets and little air holes that were drilled into the top of each plexiglas box.

The clear “cages”, that are ultimately designed to be stepped upon and gawked at, were created as part of the exhibition that was created to explore phobias.

At a Manhattan gallery where mice are embedded in the floor, and you walk on them. Cruelty or art? Story to come in @NYTMetro pic.twitter.com/ICkjJMdoMK

— Sarah Maslin Nir (@SarahMaslinNir) October 29, 2017

Artist of the exhibition Joseph Grazi told the New York Times that he created the mouse-tiled floor installation called “The Social Network”, as a commentary on the isolation endemic in social media.

Outraged animal activists are calling for an end to the exhibition, where they have asked the artist and the owner to remove the animals.

PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement that forcing animals into distressing situations is not creative but shows ignorance of who animals are, their nature and what makes them tick.

“With animatronic mice and other substitutes for real animals on the market, there’s no need to make real mice suffer.”

Mice in plexiglas flooring at Prehysteria exhibit in Manhattan. Photo: Karen Klemp/ Twitter

People online are agreeing with PETA’s stance, one Twitter user said.

“Please remove the mice from the plexiglas boxes on the floor in your Prehysteria exhibit. This is cruelty NOT art.”

“Mice frightened of being crushed under a clear floor IS NOT ART,” another commented.

On the Castle Fitzjohns website, they have written a statement that the animal rights community has been severely mislead about the nature of the mouse habitat exhibit.

“The mice are fed, watered and are in comfortable modular environments with nesting materials and a place to sleep, they pay no attention to the people that come through and behave as mice do.

“Regardless, these mice that would have been lunch for pet reptiles but now are alive and well and are being adopted out.”

The mice in exhibition were all purchased from pet shops and are feeder mice, that are bred for snakes to eat.

The mice are all available for adoption, and the New York Times wrote that those that are not adopted are planned to be fed to Mr Grazi’s pet ball python.