Dallas Artist Recreates Last Supper With Famous Vegetarians Instead of Apostles on National Mall

Greg Metz's 27-Foot Display Titled 'The Diner' Depicts the Drugging, Confinement of Animals on Factory Farms

For Immediate Release:
June 2, 2010

Contact:
Pulin Modi 757-622-7382

Washington -- Award-winning Texas artist Greg Metz's creation "The Diner," a display that was fashioned from a converted trailer, is intriguing National Mall visitors and drawing attention to the cruelty of factory farming. One side of the display depicts pigs confined to narrow cages as they are about to receive an injection, cows bleeding to death at a slaughterhouse, and a meat inspector accepting a bribe. On the other side, in a scene called "The Last Supper," a number of vegetarian celebrities--including Leonardo da Vinci, Mahatma Gandhi, Sir Paul McCartney, and Pamela Anderson--are portrayed sitting around a table.

"The nightmarish scenes that are portrayed in 'The Diner' are all too real in the meat industry," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "Every day, millions of animals are mutilated on factory farms, crammed onto filthy trucks, and cut open as they struggle in the slaughterhouse."

Metz, an instructor at the University of Texas at Dallas, is a longtime PETA supporter and has produced other larger-than-life sculptures depicting vivisection and product testing on animals. His work has been exhibited in Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands as well as throughout the U.S. He is known for creating art that comments on social and political issues. 

In today's industrialized meat and dairy industries, chickens and turkeys have their throats cut while they're still conscious, piglets have their tails and testicles cut off without being given any painkillers, fish are suffocated or cut open while they're still alive on the decks of fishing boats, and calves are taken away from their mothers within hours of birth.

"The Diner" will be on display at the intersection of 14th Street S.W. and Jefferson Drive S.W. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily through June 6. The exhibit will also include video footage of factory farms and slaughterhouses. For more information, please visit PETA.org.