PETA Challenges Putting Turkeys on the Table in New Holiday Billboard

For Immediate Release:
November 17, 2020

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Vegan foods are selling like hotcakes, so Thanksgiving is morphing into “ThanksVegan”—and PETA is encouraging Tennesseans to hop on the trend, via its billboard that just went up along I-65 and on Donelson Pike as part of a nationwide push for everyone to give turkeys a break by celebrating with a vegan feast.

Tennessee ranks number one in instances of Google searches for “turkey,” and PETA’s billboard aims to inspire a fresh, 21^st century way of viewing the birds much admired by President Abraham Lincoln—as sensitive living beings, not as centerpieces.

“PETA offers tips, recipes, and more so that everyone can have a delicious ThanksVegan meal that leaves gentle birds off the table,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “When it comes to having feelings, loving their families, and valuing their lives, turkeys are individuals, just as much as humans are.”

Turkeys are now understood to be caring parents, good flyers, and clever, spirited explorers who can live up to 10 years in nature, while those raised for food are normally slaughtered when they’re between 12 and 26 weeks old—and more than 46 million are killed each year for Thanksgiving alone. The young birds are hung by their feet from metal shackles and dragged through an electrified bath, and they’re often still conscious when their throats are slit and they’re dumped into scalding-hot defeathering tanks.

As part of its #ThanksVegan campaign, PETA is placing pro-turkey billboards across the country; offering holiday cooking tips; running its “Grace” TV ad, in which a little girl makes some pointed comments while saying grace at the dinner table; protesting outside turkey slaughterhouses that are COVID-19 hotspots; and partnering with restaurants and grocery stores to promote their ready-to-roast vegan turkeys and other animal-free options.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers a ThanksVegan menu and recipe guide. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s billboard is located along I-65, facing north near exit 90A (Dickerson Pike), and at 540 Donelson Pike.