Billboard to Pay Tribute to Chickens Killed in Truck Crash

PETA Memorial Will Encourage People to Help Keep Animals out of Transport Trucks by Going Vegan

For Immediate Release:
May 20, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

In honor of the roughly 2,500 chickens who died on May 14 when the truck carrying them overturned on Highway 18, PETA plans to place a billboard by the crash site showing a chicken’s face next to the words “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the Individual. Go Vegan.“

“This crash left thousands of birds dead or mangled on the highway, and those who survived will presumably end up under the slaughterhouse knife,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s billboard will remind people that the best way to prevent tragedies like this is to help keep smart, sensitive chickens off the road in the first place by going vegan.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is the human-supremacist view that other species are nothing more than commodities. Chickens killed for their flesh are crammed by the tens of thousands into filthy sheds and bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight. At the slaughterhouse, their throats are cut, often while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. Every person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals each year.

In 2018 alone, there were more than 90 accidents involving trucks used to transport chickens, pigs, turkeys, and cows in the U.S. In 2019, PETA has already noted 44 crashes involving trucks carrying animals used for food.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.