New Photos: Chickens Strewn Across I-5 After Deadly Crash Prompt PETA Plans for Memorial Message

For Immediate Release:
November 25, 2025

Contact:
Alex Payne 202-483-7382

DuPont, Wash. –

Heartbreaking photos (available here) captured by PETA staff Friday morning show the aftermath of the deadly crash that killed hundreds of chickens and injured and traumatized many more. The pictures were taken just hours after a semi-truck hauling the birds to slaughter overturned on Interstate 5 near DuPont at around 1 a.m. To memorialize the crash victims, PETA plans to place a sky-high message in their honor near the crash site, pointing out who’s responsible for their deaths: everyone who isn’t already vegan.

*A surviving chicken sits among the bodies of her dead flockmates following Friday morning’s crash. Credit: PETA.*

*PETA’s Proposed Memorial Billboard. Credit: PETA*

“Countless chickens died in terror and agony in this crash, while the traumatized survivors were trucked to the slaughterhouse to have their throats slit and their bodies carved up,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges everyone to please, go vegan, to help prevent animals from suffering on trucks and in slaughterhouses in the first place.”

Chickens form complex social structures, dream when they sleep, and worry about the future, just as humans do. At slaughterhouses, mechanized blades slit their throats—often while they’re still conscious—and many are scalded to death in de-feathering tanks. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help anyone thinking of making the switch.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.