Billboards Announce That ‘ThanksVegan’ Is Coming

PETA Kicks Off Nationwide ‘I’m ME, Not MEAT’ Ad Blitz

For Immediate Release:
October 6, 2020

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

As vegan foods are selling like hotcakes, Thanksgiving is fast morphing into “ThanksVegan”—which is being announced via a new PETA billboard that just went up near the Safeway store at the intersection of 100 Street and 115 Avenue as part of a national ad campaign that encourages everyone to give turkeys a break and celebrate this year’s holiday with a vegan feast.

ThanksVegan billboards have also recently gone up in Edmonton, Lloydminster, Lethbridge, and Red Deer—and across Canada, Sobeys, Safeway, and other grocery stores are teaming up with PETA to showcase their ready-to-roast vegan turkeys and other animal-free offerings for the increasing number of Canadians who are leaving dead birds off the menu for the holiday and every day.

“When it comes to having feelings, loving their families, and valuing their lives, turkeys are individuals, just as much as humans are,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA offers tips, recipes, and more so that everyone can have a delicious ThanksVegan meal that leaves gentle birds off the table.”

Turkeys are caring parents and spirited explorers who can live up to 10 years, but those raised for food are normally slaughtered when they’re between 12 and 26 weeks old—and millions are killed each year for Thanksgiving alone. The young birds are hung by their feet from metal shackles and dragged through an electrified bath, and they’re often still conscious when their throats are slit and they’re dumped into scalding-hot defeathering tanks.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers a ThanksVegan recipe guide, which can be accessed here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.