PETA Billboards Defend Rare Elk From Slaughter
For Immediate Release:
May 24, 2021
Contact:
Tapi Mbundure 202-483-7382
PETA has placed billboards near the headquarters of the California Coastal Commission (CCC) and the regional offices of the National Park Service (NPS), condemning the CCC-approved NPS plan to promote livestock ranching on Point Reyes National Seashore—which would also allow for the slaughter of tule elk, the rarest subspecies of elk in the world.
Today, many of the remaining tule elk are trapped on a small peninsula of the national seashore behind a tall fence that protects forage resources for cattle. Hundreds of elk reportedly died in 2020 because the fence stopped them from seeking sustenance elsewhere. Yet the plan would allow NPS to slaughter local elk as it sees fit and ranchers to keep over 5,500 cows on some 26,000 fenced-off acres of the seashore for 20 more years.
“Americans should be able to count on the National Park Service to protect wildlife, not slaughter elk as cattle ranchers demand,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “It’s going to take more than just PETA to protect dwindling populations of these beloved elk—we need the government’s advocacy, too.”
PETA notes that cattle ranching also wastes water and contributes to climate change; contaminates existing Point Reyes water supplies with manure, hormones, and antibiotics; and forces gentle cows to endure terrifying deaths in blood-soaked slaughterhouses, even though they feel pain and cherish their families, just as tule elk do.
PETA’s billboards are located at 911 Pacific Ave. and 1108 Stockton St.
PETA has also placed ads on bus shelters and bike kiosks in Washington, D.C., along with an ad in The Washington Post that called out the secretary of the interior by name: “NPS, Secretary Haaland: Don’t Slaughter Tule Elk. Say No to Cattle Ranchers!”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
