Antioch College’s Impending Lamb Killings Prompt Urgent PETA Action

School Urged to Abandon Callous, Fatal Plan and Retire ‘Living Lawnmowers’—for the Sake of Animals, Students, and the Planet

For Immediate Release:
August 29, 2019

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

After PETA was alerted to Antioch College’s plan to slaughter nine lambs and serve them up in the dining hall, the group rushed a letter to the school’s president urging him to send the animals to a sanctuary and offering to cover all costs as well as to donate the same amount of food that the lambs would have provided in the form of healthy vegan meat for the students. PETA points out that killing the lambs would send a dangerous message to students that vulnerable animals exist merely to be exploited (in this case as grass cutters) and then killed—and it would subject the Dayton area to yet another act of senseless violence.

“Antioch College prides itself on being progressive, but this plan is out of touch and flies in the face of efforts to help young people relate to others, stop bullying, object to the burning of the Amazon rainforest for meat production, take personal responsibility for healthy and humane living, and more,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “The school is putting its students on a path to insensitivity toward those who are different from them and promoting a filthy meat-eating habit that’s linked to heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer later in life.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to Antioch College President Dr. Thomas Manley follows.

August 29, 2019

Thomas Manley, Ph.D.
President
Antioch College

Dear Dr. Manley,

I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 6.5 million members and supporters worldwide, including thousands across Ohio, to urge you to send the nine Antioch lambs slated for slaughter to a farmed-animal sanctuary so that they can live out their lives in peace. They deserve to be allowed to live, and eating meat is not sustainable if this planet is to survive, let alone thrive. The Amazon is burning because of a taste for flesh. It’s both vital and timely that a standard of compassion be set and that students understand that treating any sentient beings as inferior and exploiting them for food are wrong.

Compassion aside, raising animals to be slaughtered for food is unnecessary and an extraordinary waste of resources. It results in needless suffering and death and is a leading contributor to anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions that are causing climate change. In fact, meat production has such a devastating effect on all aspects of our environment that the Union of Concerned Scientists lists meat-eating as the second-biggest environmental hazard facing the Earth, and recent studies show that eliminating animal products can reduce a person’s food carbon footprint by 73%. If everyone went vegan, global land use could be reduced by 75%.

Slaughtering these lambs sends the dangerous message that defenseless individuals are mere objects to be used and exploited. It breeds a callous disregard for life and is a blatant example of speciesism. There’s an epidemic of youth violence against animals. Four teens were arrested earlier this month after punching and stabbing a dog, who later died; an Asheboro, North Carolina, teen strangled a cat with his hands and trapped, stabbed, and lit a raccoon on fire; and a teen put a dog in a clothes dryer and turned it on. All these cases are reminders of a widespread problem. And Parkland, Florida, school shooter Nikolas Cruz had a history of killing animals, including chickens, squirrels, and rats. We constantly receive reports of students who have abused animals—a behavior that is often a precursor to violence toward humans—so ensuring that school activities and courses promote compassion toward all living, feeling beings is vital.

We appeal to your compassion, environmental conscience, and prudence. You have the opportunity to send the message that the lives of the most vulnerable among us are valuable, and we truly hope you will choose to send these living, breathing, sentient beings to a sanctuary, where they would be safe and happy together for the rest of their lives. I’d be happy to help you find placement for them, cover all costs of relocation, and even supply an equivalent amount of vegan food for the students or whoever would have eaten these lovely animals’ flesh. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk

President