Roadside Monument for Turkeys Killed in Truck Crash Sought by PETA

Ten-Foot Memorial on Main Street to Urge Motorists to Go Vegan

For Immediate Release:
October 29, 2014

Contact:
Laura Cascada 202-483-7382

PETA is supplying motorists with food for thought in the wake of a tractor-trailer crash on Main Street in Erin, Ont., last week, where hundreds of turkeys were crushed or asphyxiated to death en route to slaughter. A resident of Ontario and member of local animal rights group Toronto Pig Save has sent a letter on PETA’s behalf to Larry Van Wyck, road superintendent of Erin Public Works, to ask for permission to erect a 10-foot-tall roadside monument at the site for one month, which would feature the words “In Memory of the Hundreds of Turkeys Who Died Here in a Truck Crash. Go Vegan.” Members of Toronto Pig Save regularly hold vigils outside slaughterhouses, where they witness terrified animals arriving in packed trucks.

“This memorial is intended to make roads safer for everyone by reminding tractor-trailer drivers of their responsibility to the thousands of animals they haul to their deaths every day,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s motto reads, in part, that ‘animals are not ours to eat,’ and we’re asking motorists to consider preventing other roadside tragedies by choosing healthy, delicious vegan foods—and sparing turkeys and other animals the cruelty of slaughter entirely.”

Animals raised for food are typically crowded onto trucks and transported to the slaughterhouse over many miles through all weather extremes, often without food or water. Those who survive this nightmarish journey will have their throats slit, often while they’re still conscious. Many remain conscious when they’re plunged into the scalding-hot water of the defeathering or hair-removal tanks or while their bodies are being skinned or hacked apart.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.