‘I’m ME, Not MEAT’: Turkey Makes Vegan Plea on New Airport Ad

For Immediate Release:
November 12, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

Just in time for the holiday travel season, PETA has placed an ad on a large panel in the concourse at the Akron-Canton Airport featuring an inquisitive-looking turkey alongside the words “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the Individual. Go Vegan.” The ad is part of a series of similar ads being placed in cities across the U.S. leading up to Thanksgiving, including inside the Rapid City Regional Airport in Rapid City, South Dakota, and on billboards in Denver, Minneapolis, Boston, Las Vegas, Houston, and Fort Myers, Florida.

The ad at the Akron-Canton Airport debuted on November 12 and will remain in place through Thanksgiving and some of the busiest travel days of the year.

“These ads will inspire people to consider who the turkeys killed for Thanksgiving meals really are—and that’s frightened young animals who didn’t want to die,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is encouraging families to enjoy animal-friendly vegan stews, roasts, and casseroles or time-savers like Field Roast’s Hazelnut Cranberry Roast En Croute.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that Americans purchase tens of millions of turkeys for the holidays alone. In nature, turkeys are protective and loving parents as well as spirited explorers who can climb trees and run as fast as 25 mph. On today’s farms, the birds are confined to cramped, filthy warehouses. Their upper beaks and parts of their toes are cut off—all without painkillers, and they’re only 5 months old, on average, when they’re killed. At the slaughterhouse, they’re hung upside down and their throats are slit before they’re dumped into scalding-hot water to remove feathers, often while still conscious.

For more information, including free vegan recipes and a free vegan starter kit, please visit PETA.org.