Pit's Letter


Posted on Mar 10, 2008
By Martha Garvey

By Sue Coe

Four Walls Eight Windows, 48 pages, $22

Available on Amazon.com

Activist artist Sue Coe never makes her work pretty, or subtle, or easy. But that is why her book is unforgettable. Coe's art, which will bring to mind the nightmare vision of Goya, expresses its passionate pro-animal message in an explosion of furious detail.

Pit's Letter, written as a letter from a ghostly girl pit bull named Pit to her only surviving sister, follows Pit from cradle to grave and beyond. Even those familiar with the saddest episodes from TV's Animal Precinct are likely to be stunned. Coe doesn't just show us Pit as she is first loved and then abandoned and finally abused, she insist on bringing us inside the souls of her abusers. Ironically, it is Pat, a young boy who rescues and raises her, who will also let her down most cruelly.  

Pit's life is simple: she only wants Pat to love her. But Pat's life, Coe shows, with some compassion, is complicated. He must compete for the love of his father, his friends, and eventually his colleagues. Nearly always, this competition involves some form of abuse. Ironically, it is Pat's participation in animal experimentation that will reunite him with his once-beloved dog, who has gone from pet to lab subject. It's a little like a Disney movie written and directed by David Lynch.

The visual shock of this book never wears off, but it finds pockets of kindness and humor in the most unlikely places. In a grim Christmas tableau, you notice that the dog is wearing reindeer antlers. On a man's deathbed, a couple of therapy dogs clamor for the dying man's attention. And despite her suffering, Pit remains committed to loving Pat.                 

Though the size and length suggest a children's book, be warned; this little book depicts graphic scenes of animal and human experimentation, the aftermath of a rape, and abuse of the homeless. Coe's inspiration was Hogarth's The Four Stages of Cruelty. It's clear that she believes that it is animals like Pit who can teach us to move beyond cruelty - if we can only hear what they have to say. 
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