For Immediate Release:
December 20, 2021
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Ahead of the holidays—and because Iowa is one of the country’s top pig-producing states—PETA is placing a sky-high message near local grocery stores asking passersby to “see the individual” behind each ham roast and to fill their shopping carts with delicious vegan food that no one had to suffer and die for.
“When people get the message that pigs are good-natured individuals who feel pain and fear and value their lives, many are eager to opt for a vegan roast,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA encourages everyone to offer some comfort and joy to gentle pigs by keeping ham off the holiday table.”
In the meat industry, workers chop off piglets’ tails, cut their teeth with pliers, and castrate the males—all without pain relief. At the slaughterhouse, workers hang pigs upside down, sometimes while they’re still conscious, and bleed them to death. Each person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals every year and helps prevent future pandemics, as swine flu, bird flu, SARS, and COVID-19 all stemmed from confining and killing animals for food.
PETA offers a vegan holiday guide—packed with recipes and shipping tips—on its website along with a list of top vegan ham roasts, all pig-free.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s billboard is located at 4121 16th Ave. S.W., on the southeast corner of Wiley Boulevard, just 0.3 miles from a Fareway grocery store and 0.8 miles from an ALDI location.
