PETA’s ‘Grim Reapers’ in Fargo to Launch Vegan Appeal in Top COVID-19–Afflicted State

For Immediate Release:
November 27, 2020

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Because North Dakota is the top state for COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, two “grim reapers”—complete with scythes proclaiming, “Slaughterhouses Kill Animals and Workers”—will lead PETA supporters in a spirited protest in downtown Fargo on Saturday. They’ll point out that the novel coronavirus originated in a meat market, that the virus has spread like wildfire among slaughterhouse workers, and that the solution to all this suffering and death of humans and other animals is simple: Go vegan.

“Filthy, wet, blood- and offal-soaked slaughterhouses are breeding grounds for deadly diseases that jump from animals to humans—they’re the least safe workplaces in the world, even when there’s not a pandemic raging,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Having workers stand shoulder to shoulder in a slaughterhouse endangers everyone.”

PETA notes that confining and killing animals for food has been linked to SARS, swine flu, and bird flu in addition to COVID-19—and a new strain of swine flu with “pandemic potential” is now spreading from pigs to humans in China. The meat industry has allowed slaughterhouse workers to face a nearly unchecked spread of the novel coronavirus. Recently, PETA purchased stock in major U.S. and Canadian slaughter companies to urge them to produce and pack exclusively vegan meats.

Where:           202 Broadway N. (at the intersection with Second Avenue N.), Fargo

When:             Saturday, November 28, 12 noon

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.

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