Would You Give Your Child a Cigar? Feeding Kids Meat Is as Great a Health Issue, Says New Baltimore PETA Campaign

For Immediate Release:
October 30, 2025

Contact:
Alex Payne 202-483-7382

As Baltimore city council members work to regulate the number of smoke shops popping up near local schools, a new campaign suggests that bacon, ham, and other processed meats have a lot in common with tobacco products. They all cause cancer. That’s the message PETA plans to drive home in Baltimore, following reports of children being sold tobacco and related products. As PETA points out, anyone rightly worried about the dangers of children smoking should extend that concern to the dangers of eating meat—and go vegan to protect their health.

“A responsible parent wouldn’t hand their child a cigar, so why feed them bacon, hot dogs, or other cancer-causing meats?” says PETA Founder Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA encourages everyone to help children live healthier lives by keeping animals off their plates, and choosing fiber-rich, heart-healthy, animal-free foods instead.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eating bacon, hot dogs, ham, and other processed meats can cause cancer—putting processed meats in the same category of cancer risk as tobacco smoking and asbestos. The WHO also notes that red meat—including beef, pork, and lamb—is “probably carcinogenic.” And in 2020, the American Cancer Society released new guidelines urging people to avoid eating red and processed meats to reduce their risk of developing cancer.

Pigs are soothed by music, cows have best friends, and chickens dream when they sleep, just as humans do—but in today’s meat, egg, and dairy industries, the animals are raised in filthy, crowded conditions, trucked to slaughterhouses, and violently killed. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.