Millions of Drowned Pigs, Other Animals Prompt ‘Stop Eating Meat’ Ad

Billboard Urges Bacon, Ham Consumers to Take Responsibility for Preventable Deaths

For Immediate Release:
October 1, 2018

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

In response to the deaths of more than 5,500 pigs and 4.1 million chickens and turkeys during Hurricane Florence—all of whom drowned while trapped inside massive sheds—PETA is planning to place a billboard in Columbia that features a recent photograph of two pigs swimming for their lives in the storm’s aftermath. The billboard proclaims, “Stop Eating Meat! They Die for Your Cruel and Dirty Habit.”

“When we choose to eat a pork chop or a chicken sandwich, we’re supporting an industry that callously left millions of drowned animals during Hurricane Florence,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s billboard challenges everyone to take personal responsibility for these slow and tedious deaths by keeping all animals off their plates.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that, in addition to the animals’ preventable deaths, Hurricane Florence floodwaters breached the pork industry’s massive manure lagoons, potentially contaminating the region’s water supplies with tens of millions of gallons of filth.

In addition to sparing the lives of nearly 200 animals each year, people who go vegan reduce their risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and numerous other ailments.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.