Barbaro's Law is Upside Down

In the category of strange but apparently true, I bring to your attention the news release posted on the discussion board of Alex Brown's web site about a statue of Barbaro to be displayed in Central Park in New York City that depicts the Kentucky Derby winner on his back, with his hooves in the air. According to the news release, the statue will be unveiled April 30, the week of the 134th Kentucky Derby at the location in Central Park where a carriage horse was tragically killed last year.

This statue is part of a campaign to introduce a bill in Congress, titled Barbaro's Law, that will mandate disclosure of race-related horse injuries and fatalities. It is part of a concerted effort on the part of the artist and gallery owners of Manhattan's Leo Kestling Gallery, in the meat packing district, to bring attention to horse protection legislation.

I am not quite sure what to make of this development and you will need to go to the website for yourself to see the depiction of Barbaro on his back and form your own conclusions. My initial reaction was that clearly the artist is indicting Team Barbaro for trying to save the horse for his stud potential--an accusation that could not be farther from the truth. But that is my word against theirs and they are, of course, entitled to think whatever they want.

Frankly, however, in my opinion they are doing nothing for their cause when the artist's previous sculptures include a "nude Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug, an interactive autopsy of Paris Hilton with removable organs, and a war dead Prince Harry clutching the cameo-locket of his late mother Princess Diana." Hey, I couldn't make that up even if I tried.

The web site features a petition to sign to support Barbaro's Law. You would be better served by supporting what I dub the Barbaro Bill in the book, the resolutions already circulating through Congress to ban the transport of horses across state lines for slaughter.

What this says to me, more than anything, is that the Barbaro story is still alive in so many ways, that it is almost unbelievable that no publisher, to date, wants to take a chance on this book. I mean if someone thinks they can put a statue of Barbaro on his back in Central Park, then at the very least, someone should give me a break and let me write the truth.

As for the artist and gallery owners, I'm pretty sure the Fans of Barbaro will set upon them like a pack of wolves and the Jackson's attorneys will never permit a statue of Barbaro on his back, to be displayed in Central Park. But then again, stranger things have happened.