When PETA launched its "Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign in 2003, the animal-rights organization quickly went from kosher to controversial. The exhibition featured eight 60-sq.-ft. panels juxtaposing scenes from Nazi death camps with images of factory farms and slaughterhouses. (For example: a photo of concentration-camp inmates crammed into bunkers displayed alongside a snapshot of chickens stuffed into wired cages.) The disturbing comparisons were apparently inspired by Yiddish author and Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, who once wrote of animals: "In relation to them, all people are Nazis." Singer's grandson was even recruited to help promote the campaign. But rallying behind a Jewish vegetarian didn't deter virulent criticism. Groups like the Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism, were horrified that the murder of some 6 million Jews in World War II was trivialized, and Germany's high court banned the exhibition altogether. It took Newkirk almost two years to release an apology for the stunt.
Outrageous PETA Stunts
In a new PETA ad out this month, Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez and his wife bare it all in the name of animal awareness. To mark the latest in a long line of eye-opening publicity campaigns, TIME takes a look at 10 of the organization's most shocking stunts