PETA Asks to Place Chicken Statue at Site of Deadly Truck Crash

Group Aims to Remind Haulers of Their Responsibilities When Transporting Animals as Well as the Public of the Suffering of Birds Raised and Killed for Food

For Immediate Release:
July 23, 2013

Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382

Salem, Or. – This morning, PETA sent a letter to Kevin Hottmann, city traffic engineer of the City of Salem, asking him for permission to erect PETA’s 5½-foot tall statue of a chicken at the intersection of Commercial and Division streets, the site of a July 9 crash of a truck that was hauling more than 5,000 chickens to slaughter, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of birds. The 250-pound statue would serve as a reminder not only to livestock haulers to take extra precautions with their live cargo but also to city residents that chickens are among the most abused animals on the planet and the best way to try to prevent crashes like this is to go vegan so that chickens don’t have to make the trip to the slaughterhouse in the first place.

“Chickens suffer from the time they’re babies and have their sensitive beaks cut off with a searing-hot blade until their throats are cut, often while they’re still conscious and able to feel pain,” says PETA Associate Director of Campaigns Lindsay Rajt. “Our proposed statue would bring this and other animal issues to the public’s attention, including not eating them or—at the very least—making their transport to slaughter as safe and comfortable as possible.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to City Traffic Engineer Kevin Hottmann follows.

July 23, 2013

Kevin Hottmann
City Traffic Engineer
City of Salem

Via e-mail: [email protected] 

Dear Mr. Hottmann,

Following the recent crash in Salem, in which hundreds of chickens were killed after a speeding truck driver overturned her trailer, I am writing to ask if you’d please permit PETA to place our crippled-chicken sculpture for one month on the corner of Division and Commercial streets to commemorate the lives lost in this deadly crash.

Designed by Harry Bliss, an award-winning author and a cartoonist for The New Yorker, PETA’s chicken statue is 66 inches tall, measures 60 inches from tail to beak, has a 48-inch wingspan, and weighs 250 pounds. We hope that our statue will let people know that the best way to prevent crashes such as this one is to go vegan, because chickens shouldn’t have to make the terrifying trip to the slaughterhouse at all. It will also remind tractor-trailer drivers of their responsibility to the thousands of animals they haul every year as well as to the motorists whose lives are endangered when a tractor trailer crashes.

A link to the image of the chicken sculpture can be found here. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Danielle Katz
PETA