Neighbours rail against Damien Hirst's plan to truck in dead animals

If you are a neighbour of a shark-pickler and sheep-halver, then you ought to be ready for unusual planning applications. But neighbours of the artist Damien Hirst were enraged yesterday over plans to include an "abattoir rail" at one of his studios in the Cotswolds.

Such a rail could be used to move carcasses around the old factory buildings at Dudbridge in Stroud before they are suspended in formaldehyde. A petition has been launched and placards posted around the studio.



Vicky Radwell, a vegetarian whose home overlooks the studio, said: "Most people around here are quite horrified that there are going to be dead animals there. Dead animals in art is just outrageous. It's not beautiful, is it?

Hirst achieved fame and notoriety for his Natural History series, which included Mother and Child Divided, a cow and calf each cut in half and displayed in a tank of formaldehyde. But he has run into trouble with health and safety authorities. An installation which was to be displayed in New York was banned because health inspectors were worried about the smells and fluids that would be released by the rotting process.

Will Bridges, a planning officer at Stroud district council, said there would be no slaughter of animals at the new studio but carcasses brought there by truck would be handled using the abattoir rail.