As COVID-19 Infects 150-Plus Workers Locally and Thousands Nationwide, PETA Calls for Slaughterhouses to Shut Down
For Immediate Release:
July 20, 2020
Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382
Morganton, N.C. – On Tuesday, “Grim Reapers” from PETA and Asheville Animal Save will lead a protest outside a local Case Farms chicken slaughterhouse, which is remaining open even though more than 150 workers there have tested positive for COVID-19.
When: Tuesday, July 21, 10 a.m.
Where: Case Farms, 121 Rand St. (at the intersection with W. Fleming Drive), Morganton
“Filthy, wet, blood- and offal-soaked slaughterhouses are breeding grounds for deadly diseases that can jump from animals to humans—and they’re the least safe workplaces in the world,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “As COVID-19 spreads like wildfire from worker to worker, PETA is calling for slaughterhouses to shut down, for everyone’s protection.”
PETA notes that confining and killing animals for food has been linked to SARS, swine flu, bird flu, and COVID-19—and a new strain of swine flu with “pandemic potential” is now spreading from pigs to humans in China. The meat industry has allowed slaughterhouse workers to face a nearly unchecked spread of the novel coronavirus. Recently, PETA purchased stock in major U.S. and Canadian slaughter companies to urge them to produce and pack exclusively vegan meats.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
