‘Hell on Wheels’ Is Coming: Squawking Chicken Truck to Ruffle Feathers Outside Tampa Bay Restaurants

For Immediate Release:
January 9, 2024

Contact:
Brittney Williams 202-483-7382

St. Petersburg, Fla. –

Gulf Coast diners just might think twice about chowing down on fried chicken after they see—and hear—“Hell on Wheels,” PETA’s guerilla-marketing campaign featuring a life-size chicken transport truck covered with images of real chickens crammed into crates on their way to a slaughterhouse, complete with actual recorded sounds of the birds’ cries and a subliminal message every 10 seconds suggesting that people go vegan.

When: Thursday, January 11, 12 noon (Tampa), and Saturday, January 13, 12 noon (St. Petersburg)

Where: Outside Shake Shack, 1011 Gramercy Lane, Tampa, and Social Roost, 150 First Ave. N., St. Petersburg

The vexatious vehicle will debut outside Shake Shack on Gramercy Lane in Tampa before moving on to confront diners at other chicken-centric restaurants, including Dave’s Hot Chicken, Guthrie’s Chicken Fingers, Hooters, Popeyes, and Church’s Texas Chicken. Two days later in St. Petersburg, the truck will ruffle feathers at Social Roost on First Avenue N. before moving on to PDQ, YaYa’s Flame Broiled Chicken, Zaxby’s, PoFolks, Chicken Salad Chick, Chick-fil-A, and other restaurants.

“Behind every barbecued wing or bucket of fried chicken is a once-living, sensitive individual who was crammed onto a truck for a terrifying, miserable journey to their death,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s ‘Hell on Wheels’ truck is an appeal to anyone who eats chicken to remember that the meat industry is cruel to birds and the only kind meal is a vegan one.”

“Hell on Wheels” will also roll through Sarasota on January 18.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website.

For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.