Billboard to Pay Tribute to Chickens Killed in Truck Crash
PETA Memorial Will Encourage People to Help Keep Animals out of Transport Trucks by Going Vegan
For Immediate Release:
June 20, 2019
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
In honor of the chickens who died after a tractor-trailer carrying thousands of birds overturned on U.S. Route 30 near Pigeon Run Avenue S.W. on Friday morning, PETA plans to place a billboard near the site of the accident showing a chicken’s face next to the words “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the Individual. Go Vegan.“
Video footage shot by local group Cleveland Animal Save on the day of the accident shows cleanup crews tossing both living and dead birds into a dumpster on the side of the road. The group was able to rescue one chicken from the crash, whom they named Pidge.
“Just one little bird escaped this situation alive—thousands more were left to die on the highway, were tossed into a dumpster, or ended up under the slaughterhouse knife,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s billboard will remind people that the best way to prevent tragedies like this is to help keep smart, sensitive chickens off the road in the first place by going vegan.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is the human-supremacist view that other species are nothing more than commodities. Chickens killed for their flesh are crammed by the tens of thousands into filthy sheds and bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight. At the slaughterhouse, their throats are cut, often while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. Every person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals each year.
In 2018 alone, there were more than 90 accidents involving trucks used to transport chickens, pigs, turkeys, and cows in the U.S. In 2019, PETA has already noted 52 crashes involving trucks carrying animals used for food.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
