Bold Street Art Installation ‘Imprisons’ Baby Monkeys Across D.C.

If you’re in D.C., look closely at the next metro stop, and you may spot a tiny, mournful face peering from behind prison bars, hands reaching towards freedom. Renowned street artist Dan Witz is spreading an art campaign of shocking images across the city to draw attention to the plight of baby monkeys subjected to cruel psychological experiments at NIH.

As documented by a PETA video exposé, monkeys at NIH are bred to be predisposed to depression, separated from their mothers within hours of birth, isolated in tiny cages and subjected to terrifying experiments.

Witz began painting hummingbirds on walls around downtown Manhattan in the late 1970s, years before the phrase “street art” had even been coined and decades before the likes of Banksy and Shepard Fairey became household names. Witz was recently named one of the 50 greatest street artists working right now.

“My response to the NIH’s hidden experiments on baby monkeys demanded images that are in your face, unavoidable, and as daunting as the hideous cruelty of this program,” says Witz.