Update: New Ad Places Blame on Meat-Eaters for Toxic Lake Algae

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.

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 Ingrid E. Newkirk

“Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights?” READ MORE

— Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA President and co-author of Animalkind