Avian Flu Outbreak Prompts Protesters in Hazmat Suits to Call for Vegan Foods

PETA Points to Filthy Farms as Contributors to Spread of Disease

For Immediate Release:
December 10, 2014

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

As new avian flu outbreaks sweep across farms in British Columbia, PETA members in hazmat suits will converge on Vancouver on Thursday with a powerful message—that diseases such as avian flu can spread like wildfire in the cramped, ammonia-filled sheds where the majority of chickens used for meat are confined. The demonstrators, bearing signs proclaiming, “Meat Is a Biohazard: Go Vegan,” will hand out free emergency vegan starter kits urging shoppers to put a stopper on the virus by dropping meat from their diets.

When:   Thursday, December 11, 12 p.m.

Where:  West corner of W. Georgia and Granville streets, Vancouver

“Diseases run rampant when animals are confined to filthy, enclosed spaces, which these repeated avian flu outbreaks prove,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “For the health and well-being of people and animals, PETA is calling on consumers to give meat the boot—by choosing healthy, delicious vegan foods.”

Canada’s outbreak is concurrent with outbreaks in the Netherlands and India, where flu strain H5N1 is known to be dangerous to humans. Farms housing chickens in the Vancouver area have also been host to a number of avian flu outbreaks in the past, including a highly contagious form in 2004 that resulted in the deaths of more than 15 million chickens.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—offers a wide variety of delicious and healthy vegan recipes on its website. Vegan meals can also help the environment: Raising animals for food is a leading cause of water pollution, land degradation, and the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.