Vegan Billboard Erected in Meatpacking District, in PETA New Year Push

Attention-Grabbing Ads in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles Promote Kindness to Animals Used for Food

For Immediate Release:
January 14, 2014

Contact:
Allison Lakomski 202-483-7382

To encourage people across the U.S. to choose kinder meals in 2014, last week PETA placed thought-provoking new billboards in the country’s three largest cities, including a larger-than-life ad in the heart of Chicago’s historic meatpacking district.

The billboard in the meatpacking district is located on Fulton Market Street (near Green Street and across the street from The Publican restaurant) and features a pig’s face and the words “You Can Live Without Those Ribs. I Can’t. Try Vegan”—prompting Publican Quality Meats to issue a respectful statement in response. A second billboard, at Ogden and Carroll avenues near Harpo Studios, depicts a cow next to the words “When You Feed Your Family, Please Think About Mine. Try Vegan.” Photos are available here.

The campaign challenges people to consider what Publican Quality Meats, in its statement, calls “the reality of the choice” to eat meat and to look at it from the perspective of the animals who are killed for food. The pro-vegan billboard in Los Angeles focuses on fish, and the one in New York City’s Times Square shines a spotlight on chickens. Together, the billboards will be seen by thousands of people every day.

“PETA’s billboards will give people across the country food for thought,” says PETA Campaign Manager Katie Arth. “We want everyone to consider that, no matter where the animal is raised and slaughtered, there’s no such thing as ‘humane meat.’ What we choose to eat can mean a sad life and a painful death for wonderful animals—unless we go vegan.”

Even in what are considered the industry’s best conditions, animals are often mutilated—calves’ horns may be gouged out, and pigs’ teeth and testicles may be cut—without painkillers, and they’re denied almost everything that’s natural and important to them, including being able to care for their offspring. All animals used for food endure the terrors of transportation and being strung up and having their throats cut, often while they’re still conscious.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.