‘End Speciesism,’ Proclaim Dog, Turkey, and Pig on New Billboard

PETA’s New Year Campaign Ad Near Meat-Serving Deli Challenges ‘Pet-Friendly’ City to Extend Compassion to All Animals

For Immediate Release:
January 6, 2020

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

“We all feel pain, love, joy, and fear. Go Vegan.” That’s the message from a dog, a turkey, and a pig on a new PETA billboard that just went up near Elias Deli & Produce Market in St. Petersburg—recently named a top pet-friendly city—at the start of the new year.

The ad is part of a national campaign against speciesism—the archaic belief that despite their extraordinary talents, abilities, and intelligence, all other animal species are inferior to our own and that it’s acceptable to exploit them.

“When it comes to feeling pain and fear, loving their babies, and valuing their own lives, turkeys and pigs are no different from the dogs with whom we share our homes,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s billboard encourages people to fight speciesism in 2020 by showing respect for all animals, from chickens to cats, by going vegan.”

Turkeys are caring parents and spirited explorers, and pigs are friendly, loyal, and intelligent animals who love to play and lie in the sun. But because of human prejudice, turkeys are packed into dark sheds, mother pigs are squeezed into narrow metal stalls barely larger than their bodies, and pigs’ tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and males are castrated—all without any pain relief. At the slaughterhouse, pigs are hung upside down—often while still conscious—and bled to death, while turkeys are hung by their feet from metal shackles and dragged through an electrified bath, and they’re often still conscious when their throats are slit and they’re dumped into scalding-hot defeathering tanks.

The billboard is located at 3300 34th St. N.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat.” For more information, please visit PETA.org.