Students Opposing Speciesism to BBQ a ‘Dog’

PETA Youth Branch Will Fight Speciesism by Urging People to Leave All Animals off Their Plates

For Immediate Release:
March 5, 2020

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

Members of Students Opposing Speciesism (SOS)—a PETA-backed movement led by young people—wearing pig masks will serve up some food for thought about speciesism (a human-supremacist worldview) on Friday, when they’ll barbecue a “dog” on a grill with a banner that reads, “If You Wouldn’t Eat a Dog, Why Eat a Pig?” The action comes after a PETA exposé of a pig farm in Indiana revealed horrific conditions there, including injured pigs left to suffer in filth, dead piglets rotting on the floor, and a trash can teeming with maggots and overflowing with piglets’ bodies.

When:    Friday, March 6, 5 p.m.

Where:    51 S. Main St. (at the intersection with S. Temple Street), Salt Lake City

“If you wouldn’t eat a dog, a cat, or your annoying uncle, then the only reason you’re eating a pig is because of speciesism,” says Krystal Gates, president of Utah Valley University’s Animal Planet Health Club and an SOS member.

SOS notes that because of speciesism, pigs are routinely abused in ways that would be illegal if the victims were dogs or cats. In today’s pork industry, pigs’ tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and males are castrated—all without any pain relief. At the slaughterhouse, they’re hung upside down, often while still conscious, and bled to death.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.