‘Hell on Wheels’ Is Coming: Squawking Chicken Truck to Ruffle Feathers Downtown

For Immediate Release:
August 10, 2022

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

Diners near the Gateway Arch just might think twice about chowing down on fried chicken after they see—and hear—“Hell on Wheels,” PETA’s new guerilla-marketing campaign featuring a life-size chicken transport truck covered with images of real chickens crammed into crates on their way to a slaughterhouse, complete with actual recorded sounds of the birds’ cries and a subliminal message every 10 seconds suggesting that people go vegan. The truck will drive down Market Street and Washington Avenue—where chicken-serving eateries include The Battered Bird Saint Louis, Pops Kitchen Downtown, and Harold’s Shrimp & Chicken Sports Bar—on Friday as part of the group’s national tour.

“Behind every fried chicken bucket or barbecued wing was a once-living, sensitive individual who was crammed onto a truck for a terrifying, miserable journey to their death,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s ‘Hell on Wheels’ truck is an appeal to anyone who eats chicken to remember that the meat industry is cruel to birds and that the kindest meal is a vegan one.”

Birds killed for their flesh are bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight, and the sheds to which they’re confined are so filthy that the red, watery goo in packages of chicken is referred to as “fecal soup.” They’re trucked through all weather extremes, sometimes over hundreds of miles and without any food or water, to slaughterhouses, where their throats are slit—often while they’re still conscious.

Upcoming stops on the “Hell on Wheels” tour include staking out chicken restaurants in Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and other cities as well as the Michigan Chicken Wing Festival in Lansing.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.