Animal Rights Activists Use ‘Wallace and Gromit’ to Stick It to King Charles
British animal lovers have adopted Wallace from Wallace and Gromit as their new king in the fight for animal liberation — it’s like they don’t even know about what went down between him and that penguin.
The official and possibly demonic portrait of King Charles III was on public display for less than a month before it became the latest target of artistic vandalism committed by environmentalist groups. Earlier this year, climate activists threw soup at the Mona Lisa’s bulletproof (and broth-proof) protective glass in the Louvre, and earlier this week, a far less beloved work of European art fell victim to a stick-and-paste hit job when an animal rights group attacked the U.K. King’s portrait hanging in the National Gallery of London by gluing Wallace’s face over the king’s own head and adding a speech bubble that reads, “No cheese, Gromit. Look at all this cruelty on RSPCA farms.”
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Good thing Wallace and Gromit still have their special stash that’s guaranteed to be 100 percent animal cruelty free. It’s time for another trip to the moon.
The activist group, Animal Rising, used the delightfully English defacement to draw attention to what they consider to be cruel conditions on farms approved by the U.K.’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The RSPCA assigns official designations of “RSPCA Assured” on U.K. consumer products sourced from farms that meet their standards for animal treatment, but Animal Rising says that at least 45 of the farms sanctioned by RSPCA foster “poor animal welfare.”
As many Twitter users were quick to point out, this cartoonish complaint meant to capture the King’s attention on animal-related issues coincides with the development of the first Wallace and Gromit film in 16 years, the upcoming Netflix feature Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Additionally, the teasers released in advance of the new Wallace and Gromit film promise the return of Feathers McGraw, a criminal penguin who served as the antagonist of the classic 1993 short film The Wrong Trousers.
So, when these artsy activists advocate for the animal liberation, maybe they should add an asterisk saying, “But keep the penguin that almost killed Gromit in prison.”