‘Love Turkeys, Don’t Eat Them,’ Advises New PETA Ad

#ThanksVegan Campaign to Donate Over 60 Vegan Roasts to Rescue Mission

For Immediate Release:
November 24, 2020

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Vegan foods are selling like hotcakes, so Thanksgiving is morphing into “ThanksVegan”—and PETA is encouraging holiday travelers to hop on the trend via its billboard that just went up along I-95 as part of a nationwide push for everyone to give turkeys a break by celebrating with a vegan feast. And in the spirit of giving, PETA will donate more than 60 Tofurky roasts today to the Durham Rescue Mission, which has asked for help feeding homeless families during the holidays.

“Everyone deserves to have a delicious ThanksVegan meal that gives turkeys a reason to be thankful, too,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA offers recipes, tips, and even personal mentors to help anyone practice compassion toward these remarkable birds, who have feelings, value their lives, and love their families, just as we do.”

Turkeys are now understood to be caring parents, good flyers, and clever, spirited explorers who can live up to 10 years in nature, while those raised for food are normally slaughtered when they’re between 12 and 26 weeks old—and more than 46 million are killed each year for Thanksgiving alone. The young birds are hung by their feet from metal shackles and dragged through an electrified bath, and they’re often still conscious when their throats are slit and they’re dumped into scalding-hot defeathering tanks.

As part of its #ThanksVegan campaign, PETA is placing “I’m ME, Not MEAT” pro-turkey billboards across the country; offering holiday cooking tips; running its “Grace” TV ad, in which a little girl makes some pointed comments while saying grace at the dinner table; protesting outside turkey slaughterhouses, which are COVID-19 hotspots; and partnering with restaurants and grocery stores to promote their ready-to-roast vegan turkeys and other animal-free options.

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

The billboard is located on I-95, 0.8 miles south of Exit 93 (Brogden Road).