PETA Ad to Pay Tribute to 12,000 Pigs Killed in Barn Blaze

For Immediate Release:
May 24, 2021

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

In honor of the 3,000 mother pigs and their 9,000 piglets who reportedly died inside burning industrial sheds at Woodville Pork near Waseca on May 16, PETA plans to place a billboard nearby that points out who’s responsible for their deaths: everyone who hasn’t yet gone vegan.

“Thousands of pigs endured agonizing deaths in this fire,” says PETA Director Danielle Katz. “PETA’s ad points out that we can all save sensitive pigs like them—and cows, chickens, and turkeys—by keeping them off our plates.”

Today’s meat industry squeezes mother pigs into narrow metal stalls barely larger than their bodies and keeps them almost constantly pregnant or nursing. Workers chop off pigs’ tails, cut their teeth with pliers, and castrate the males—all without any pain relief. At the slaughterhouse, workers hang them upside down—sometimes while still conscious—and bleed them to death.

The World Health Organization has confirmed that eating bacon, hot dogs, ham, and other processed meats can cause cancer. Every person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals each year; reduces their own risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and numerous other health conditions; and helps prevent future pandemics. Swine flu, bird flu, and COVID-19 all stemmed from confining and killing animals for food.

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.