Save the ... Snails!

People, people. This is just wrong:

Giant snails take a beating on Miami Beach
By The Miami Herald | Arts and Culture
BY DAVID SMILEY

The 45 giant pink snails visiting Miami Beach for Art Basel season were supposed to inspire reflection on the environment and the fast pace of South Florida life.

Instead, the recycled plastic gastropods have been treated like unwanted tourists — punched, tagged with graffiti, relocated by county order and, in one case, tossed into Biscayne Bay.

“Every morning I wake up with a disaster,” said Gloria Porcella, co-owner of Galleria Ca’ d’Oro, which has backed the Italian art collective behind the 45 snails’ appearance.

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Sometime over the weekend, several snails on Dade Boulevard were upended, and someone tagged two others with graffiti, she said.

The topper: A snail in Maurice Gibb Memorial Park was “launched in the water” of Biscayne Bay.

Miami Beach police say they have received reports about the vandalism and a detective from the department’s property crimes bureau is investigating.

For Porcella, who just opened a gallery in Coral Gables, the experience is a first. She said the snails project, which has also been exhibited in Rome and Paris, has never been vandalized or disrespected the way it has been in Miami Beach.