Real Wiener Schnitzel? PETA’s Oktoberfest Appeal: Let’s Say Nein to Schwein, Too
For Immediate Release:
September 19, 2023
Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382
Bratwurst bingers, beware! A dachshund will give Oktoberfest revelers—particularly those making their dogs race in the event’s Wiener Dog Derby—food for thought, courtesy of a giant message from PETA near Frontier Park that questions why we kill and consume pigs without a second thought but wouldn’t dream of doing the same to dogs and that urges festivalgoers to try vegan.
“Pigs are identical to our beloved animal companions in all the ways that matter—like feeling joy, love, and pain—so eating them is just like devouring a dachshund,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA encourages everyone to say, ‘Prost,’ to delicious pig- and planet-friendly vegan meats and stands ready with a free vegan starter kit.”
Pigs are smart individuals with unique personalities who feel pain and fear, experience joy, and value their lives, but in today’s factory-farming industry, mother pigs are squeezed into narrow metal stalls barely larger than their bodies, males are castrated, and pigs’ tails are chopped off—all without painkillers. At slaughterhouses, the terrified animals are hung upside down and bled to death, often while still conscious. Everyone who goes vegan spares the lives of nearly 200 animals every year, dramatically shrinks their carbon footprint, and lowers their risk of suffering from numerous ailments, including heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and obesity.
PETA’s billboard is located next to 1410 S. Fifth St., greeting drivers on I-70 heading toward the festival. The group offers a free vegan starter kit for anyone ready to make the switch.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
