Just in Time for Earth Day, PETA Points to Cause of Lake Erie's Pollution: the Filthy Meat Industry
For Immediate Release:
April 21, 2020
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
Toledo, Ohio – In response to Gov. Mike DeWine’s $172 million plan to clean up the toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie—and in honor of Earth Day (April 22)—PETA has placed a billboard that urges Ohioans to take personal responsibility for the pollution by going vegan.
“Runoff from filthy farms is a leading cause of water pollution in Lake Erie and around the world,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “This Earth Day, PETA’s billboard is a reminder that each of us can help save the planet and all who live on it by going vegan.”
The Ohio Lake Erie Commission reports that 85% of the lake’s nutrient pollution comes from farm fertilizer and manure runoff, which leads to blooms of algae, or cyanobacteria, that release toxins into the water. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Coastal Management states that record-high rainfall, driven by climate change, is to blame for the increasingly harmful levels of algae blooms—and the United Nations states that animal agriculture is responsible for nearly a fifth of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions.
The billboard is located at 3128 Secor Rd. in Toledo.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
