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

For Immediate Release:
November 16, 2022

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

Locals just might think twice about chowing down on 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. As part of the group’s national tour, the truck will stake out the Holy Smokes BBQ Festival on Saturday, and from Friday through Sunday, it will make appearances at Joe Riley Waterfront Park, Charleston City Market, Riverfront Park, Memminger Elementary School, and meaty eateries such as Poogan’s Porch, Husk Restaurant, and 82 Queen.

“Behind every barbecued wing or plate of fried chicken is 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.

The “Hell on Wheels” tour previously staked out chicken restaurants in Greensboro, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The truck has also stopped at several food festivals and state fairs, including the Taste of Buffalo in New York, Nashville’s Hot Chicken Music Festival, and the Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival in Tennessee. Upcoming stops on the tour include Houston; Jacksonville, Florida; New Orleans; and Savannah, Georgia.

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.