PETA Bus Ad Takes Aim at Meaty Eateries, Leather Shops
For Immediate Release:
February 11, 2021
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
“We Are a Family. Not Footwear or Food.” That’s the appeal from a mother cow and her calf on a new PETA ad now plastered on buses near Hanes Mall, a shopping center home to steakhouses and burger joints—including Texas Roadhouse, Dave & Buster’s, and Red Robin—and leather-peddling retailers, including Birkenstock, Buckle, Journeys, and Dillard’s. The ads encourage everyone to exercise empathy and make kind choices when shopping.
“Just like humans, cows are made of flesh and blood; feel pain, joy, and fear; love their babies and mothers; and value their lives,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s message is that we can all show kindness to these gentle animals simply by opting for delicious vegan burgers or stylish vegan boots.”
A PETA video exposé of Brazil’s JBS S.A.—the world’s largest leather processor—revealed that workers branded cows and bulls on the face, electroshocked them, and beat them before killing them for meat and leather. After a lifetime of intense confinement, cows are typically transported to slaughterhouses, where workers slit their throats and even skin and dismember some while they’re still conscious.
In addition to saving the lives of nearly 200 animals every year, each person who goes vegan helps prevent future pandemics. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Approximately 75 percent of recently emerging infectious diseases affecting people began as diseases in animals.” Both the meat and leather industries confine, transport, and kill animals in filthy, crowded conditions in which zoonotic illnesses can develop and spread.
PETA’s ads are displayed on the sides of Winston-Salem Transit Authority buses near Hanes Mall (3320 Silas Creek Pkwy.).
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview that fosters violence toward other animals. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
