Billboard to Pay Tribute to Pigs Killed in Barn Blaze

PETA Memorial Will Encourage People to Help Prevent More Animals’ Deaths by Going Vegan

For Immediate Release:
February 25, 2020

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

In honor of the pigs who suffered and died inside a burning industrial shed on a hog farm located between Sherrard and Preemption on Valentine’s Day, PETA plans to place a billboard nearby that points out who’s responsible for their deaths: everyone who hasn’t gone vegan.

“Each of these pigs was an individual who felt pain and terror as smoke and flames engulfed them,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges everyone to practice kindness to sensitive pigs—as well as chickens, cows, and other animals—by going vegan.”

In today’s meat industry, mother pigs are squeezed into narrow metal stalls barely larger than their bodies and kept almost constantly pregnant or nursing. Pigs’ tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and males are castrated—all without any pain relief. At the slaughterhouse, they’re hung upside down—sometimes while still conscious—and bled to death.

The World Health Organization has confirmed that eating bacon, hot dogs, ham, and other processed meats can cause cancer. Every person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals each year and reduces their own risk of suffering from heart disease, obesity, cancer, diabetes, and numerous other health conditions.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, the archaic belief that despite their extraordinary talents, abilities, and intelligence, all other animal species are inferior to our own and that it’s acceptable to exploit them. For more information, please visit PETA.org.