For Immediate Release:
July 9, 2008

Boston -- This morning, PETA fired off a letter to Nathan Censullo, director of the Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge, urging him to remove an exhibit called "Meat After Meat Joy" from his gallery. PETA's letter was prompted by news reports about a group of 10 artists who used various types of meat as a medium for their exhibition. The "artwork" includes a flag, a book, and a representation of a baby girl, all composed of animal flesh. In its letter, PETA explains that there is nothing joyful about meat and that animals killed for food are made of flesh, blood, and bone--just as humans are. Animals also have the same senses and emotions that humans have. PETA suggests that Censullo instead create an exhibit that depicts the suffering of the billions of animals who are abused and killed by the meat industry every year.

For more information, please visit GoVeg.com. 

On behalf of PETA and our more than 2 million members and supporters--including many thousands in and around Boston--I am writing to urge you to take down the "Meat After Meat Joy" exhibit and commit to displaying only exhibits that don't support gratuitous animal suffering.

Unless you're Hannibal Lecter, there's nothing "artistic" or "joyful" about meat. If it's unacceptable to kill humans for an art exhibit, then it should be unacceptable to kill animals too. Quite simply, meat isn't joy: It's misery. Your Web site refers to meat as a "medium," as if it were no different from paper or canvas. But meat is not a medium. It's the flesh of an animal who valued his or her life, just as you do, until that life was violently cut short. Like human beings, animals are made of flesh, blood, and bone. Animals have the same five senses that we do, and they have the same capacity to experience love, joy, suffering, and fear. Animals desire to live their lives free of pain and fear--not to be exploited for "art."