Devin Ramirez
They/Them

TRAPPED

Trapped brings attention to the mistreatment of animals in the pet industry. My work critiques the impact of environmental and social structures on the lives of animals, while also emphasizing the importance of animal rights and pet care. The centerpiece is a hamster maze that highlights deceptive marketing practices in pet stores. I use brightly colored plastic children's toys mixed in with the hamster accessories that commercial pet stores sell. Seeing these items side by side, nearly indecipherable from one another, illustrates the harmful business tactics that are commonplace within the pet industry and marketing campaigns that attract and lure consumers, especially parents and their children. A video projected over the sculpture features a hamster struggling to escape the maze and simulates pets trapped in small enclosures. The small animals are denied natural livable conditions, emphasizing the manipulative tactics pet stores use to profit from animal exploitation.

Trapped  informs viewers about pet store manipulation of consumers at the grave expense of a beloved pet’s livelihood. There is a need for animal rights activism to expose the harsh realities animals face in these spaces. Purchasing animals from pet stores poses ethical concerns. Seen as merchandise, when one pet is sold it is replaced by another, reinforcing conditions of harm and neglect. Through this artwork, I call in to question our cultural relationship to animals, and address the power structures enforcing those constructs within society.