Airport Has a New Therapy Pig—so Why Is It Serving Pork?
In response to the introduction of a therapy pig named LiLou at San Francisco International Airport, PETA sent a letter today urging the airport to remove pork, bacon, and other foods made from pigs from its restaurants.
Like LiLou, pigs are extremely good-natured, playful, affectionate, sensitive, social, and smart. Yet the ones used for food are confined to filthy warehouses, their tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and males are castrated—often without any painkillers. At slaughterhouses, they scream as they’re hung upside down and bled to death, often while they’re still conscious.
To encourage travelers to protect pigs like LiLou—and their own health—by going vegan, PETA hopes to place its compelling “I’m ME, Not MEAT! See the Individual” ads throughout the airport. They’re part of PETA’s new nationwide vegan ad series in which animals appeal to consumers not to support the industries that abuse and kill them.
“Encouraging travelers to pet one pig while serving the flesh of others simply doesn’t fly,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “San Francisco International Airport can protect pigs—and passengers’ health—by encouraging its restaurants to cut the pork and serve tasty, cruelty-free vegan meats instead.”
