‘Hell on Wheels’ Is Coming—Turkey Truck to Blast Dying Animals’ Cries Outside Zupan’s Markets
For Immediate Release:
October 23, 2024
Contact:
Maddy Missett 202-483-7382
Shoppers heading into Zupan’s Markets on W. Burnside Street are in for an earful on Friday, when “Hell on Wheels”—PETA’s life-size, hyperrealistic turkey transport truck covered with images of turkeys crammed into crates on their way to slaughter—will bombard them with actual recorded sounds of the birds’ cries along with a subliminal message every 10 seconds suggesting that people go vegan. As part of its tour across 30 states, the truck aims to raise awareness of the 46 million turkeys who are killed every year for Thanksgiving.
The vexatious vehicle’s arrival comes as a bird flu outbreak continues to spread across the U.S. A cluster of bird flu infections in humans has spread to eight people in Missouri in what may be the first examples of person-to-person transmission in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bird flu has also infected more than 332 herds of cows in the dairy industry and resulted in the killing of tens of millions of turkeys, chickens, and other birds nationwide since the beginning of the year. PETA points out that breeding and raising animals for food creates hotspots for potentially deadly zoonotic diseases.
Where: Outside Zupan’s Markets, 2340 W. Burnside St., Portland
When: Friday, October 25, 12 noon
“Behind every trussed-up turkey is a once-living, sensitive individual who was crammed onto a truck for a terrifying, miserable journey to their death,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s ‘Hell on Wheels’ truck is an appeal to anyone who eats turkey to remember that the meat industry is cruel to birds and hazardous to human health and that the only compassionate meal is a vegan one.”
Why: In nature, turkeys spend their days caring for their young, building nests, foraging for food, taking dust baths, and roosting in trees, and they can live over 10 years. Turkeys raised for food are often slaughtered within their first six months of life—and tens of millions are killed each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas alone. Workers hang the young birds upside down, drag them through an electrified bath, slit their throats, and dump them into scalding-hot defeathering tanks—often while they’re still conscious.
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. PETA’s free vegan starter kit and “ThanksVegan” guide are filled with tips to help anyone looking to make the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
