More Blood and Guts Sought for Walmart’s Toy Livestock Truck

PETA Asks Toy Manufacturer to Show Kids the Whole Truth Behind the Meat Industry: Crowded Transport Trucks, Terrifying Slaughterhouses

For Immediate Release:
November 18, 2015

Contact:
Catie Cryar 202-483-7382

As Walmart comes under fire for selling a toy version of a livestock truck—a vehicle that transports animals to the slaughterhouse—for the holidays, PETA sent the toy’s manufacturer a tongue-in-cheek letter today asking that the toy be made more realistic. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—suggests equipping the truck with plastic pigs, crammed into the truck so tightly that they can’t move, or plastic cows, standing in an ankle-deep sludge of urine and manure. PETA’s other suggestions include adding a slaughterhouse playset, where the toy animals could be hung upside-down and have their throats slit.

“As the holiday season is about warmth, joy, and kindness, it’s completely inappropriate to produce and sell a children’s toy that celebrates billions of animals’ terrifying trips to slaughter,” says PETA Executive Vice President and mother Tracy Reiman. “Kids have a natural empathy for animals, and if they knew that their toy was used to truck animals to their deaths, they would throw it straight into the garbage.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to Greg Kilrea, CEO of TOMY International, follows.

November 18, 2015

Gregory J. Kilrea
President and CEO
TOMY International, Ltd.

Dear Mr. Kilrea,

I am writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 3 million members and supporters worldwide regarding a toy livestock transport truck produced by your company. We understand that TOMY wishes to provide youngsters with an authentic “Big Farm” play experience, so we have some suggestions for ways to make this toy a better reflection of the reality of today’s industrialized farming systems.

We suggest that you include miniature pigs so that children could cram them into the truck so tightly that they couldn’t move or turn around. You could glue a flock of toy chickens to the inside of the truck so that young people would see that the animals inside are exposed to the elements, and sometimes die frozen to the sides of the trailer. It would be good to include some cows, and for a realistic depiction of cattle used by the beef or dairy industry, the floor of the trailer should be coated in an ankle-deep sludge of urine and manure, which builds up on their long journey to the slaughterhouse. And why not market a companion slaughterhouse replica? With such a toy, our kids would learn that animals must be hung upside down and have their throats cut once they arrive at their destination in that transport truck. Here is an artist’s rendition that conceptualizes some of these suggestions.

The meat, dairy, and egg industries subject animals to horrific abuse before they are cruelly killed for food. Because the holiday season is about warmth, joy, and kindness, we are puzzled by the production of a child’s toy that represents so much pain and suffering. Since the toy exists, we hope you will increase its educational value by making it as realistic as possible. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President