Hurricane Matthew Kills Millions of Animals on Factory Farms
As many human victims of Hurricane Matthew are struggling to get back on their feet, PETA sent a shipment this morning of $500 worth of vegan chicken, plant-based bacon, and other meat-free products to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina to give area residents a taste of animal-friendly eating—which may just prompt them to go vegan because they like what they taste or realize how many animal lives it saves. More than 5 million farmed animals died during the storm—including millions of chickens and thousands of pigs who drowned while locked inside sheds and pens at local intensive-confinement farms.
PETA’s food donation, which will certainly aid affected families, aims to make a bigger point: that eating vegan is not only a healthy choice but also a powerful way to prevent animal suffering and help avert future environmental disasters.
Eating vegan meals spares animals immense suffering in today’s industrialized meat and dairy industries. In addition to intensively confining and transporting animals in all weather extremes, these industries slit chickens’ throats while they’re still conscious, chop off piglets’ tails and testicles without the use of painkillers, and tear calves away from their mothers within 48 hours of birth.
Animal agriculture also accounts for an estimated 50 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, and the United Nations has concluded that a global shift towards vegan eating is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change. Scientists predict that in the future, climate change will likely cause more intense and destructive hurricanes with substantially higher rainfall rates.
