Roadside Memorial Requested for Cows Killed in Truck Crash
PETA Tribute Would Encourage Drivers to Travel Safely and Think About the Fate of All on the Road
For Immediate Release:
October 4, 2016
Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382
In the wake of a truck crash on September 25 that killed and grievously injured numerous cattle, PETA sent a letter today to the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department asking for approval to erect a 5-foot-tall tombstone memorial at the scene on Highway 5 in northern Arkansas.
The tribute (image here) would feature an image of a cow next the words “In Memory of the Cows Who Suffered and Died at This Spot, September 2016. Try Vegan” and would remind all drivers, including those with animals on board, to travel safely—while pointing out that we can all prevent further animal suffering and death by going vegan.
“This horrific crash left these sensitive animals dead and mangled on an already terrifying trip to the slaughterhouse,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s roadside memorial will remind livestock transporters that the least they can do is drive safely, while letting all travelers know that the best way to prevent such tragedies is to keep animals off the road in the first place by going vegan.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that before cows are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughterhouses, they suffer immensely on industrialized meat and dairy farms. These intelligent, curious animals spend their short lives on cramped, filthy feedlots without protection from extreme temperatures. Calves are torn away from their mothers within hours of birth and are castrated and branded without painkillers. At the slaughterhouse, workers shoot cows in the head with a captive-bolt gun, hang them up by one leg, cut their throats, and skin them—often while they’re still conscious.
PETA’s letter to the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
