Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum

My friend Min wanted to visit the Death By Man (sic.) exhibit at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, so on Tuesday we trooped over there after her workday.

Situated on the National University of Singapore campus, the Lee Kong Chian Museum houses a collection of exhibits on flora and fauna, including taxidermied animals, displays of moss and fungi, and three dinosaur skeletons from Wyoming.

Upstairs, we found the Death By Man exhibit, which is a rather discomforting collection of prints of animals and birds killed by human contact in Singapore. The animals and birds were anthropomorphized and given names. Accompanying each frame was a brief description of how the animal died. Most of the birds died by flying into buildings, while most of the animals died after being hit by vehicles.

A select number of the animals were also given a backstory based on what the artist knew about the circumstances of their deaths. There were a few extra sad standout stories, including a pet iguana tossed from a highrise when the owner no longer wanted it as a pet, a woman who suffocated a harmless snake in three plastic bags because she was convinced it was going to kill her and her children, and a man who used to feed a monkey, but then got tired of the monkey's antics so he set his dogs on the monkey.

Overall, this was a sad, horrible indictment of human fecklessness. But, it was a worth a visit, if only to jolt us out of our complacency.Read more