PETA Places Roadside Memorial for Cows Killed in Truck Crash

Group’s Sign Cautions Drivers to Prevent Animal Suffering and Deaths En Route to the Slaughterhouse

For Immediate Release:
November 11, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

In the wake of an incident last month in which a truck transporting cows to slaughter rolled over on Highway 151 near County Highway E outside Mount Horeb, causing the painful deaths of at least five cows, PETA has erected a sign at the site of the accident that reads, “In Memory of the Cows Who Were Crushed to Death in a Truck Accident at This Spot En Route to Slaughter. Try Vegan.” PETA hopes its memorial sign, which was installed with the help of Madison-based Alliance for Animals and the Environment, will remind tractor-trailer drivers of their responsibility to the thousands of animals they haul to their deaths every day—and remind everyone that each of us can help stop this violence by going vegan.

“It’s shameful enough that cows are sent to slaughterhouses to have their throats slit and their skin ripped off, sometimes while they’re still alive,” says PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews. “PETA’s sign will remind truck drivers that the least that we can do for these animals is to take care to prevent them from being crushed to death by trailers and the struggling bodies of other cows.”

Before they are ever loaded onto trucks bound for slaughterhouses, cows raised on factory farms suffer immensely: Calves are taken away from their mothers within hours of birth, and they are castrated and branded without any painkillers. These sensitive, curious animals spend their short lives on massive, filthy feedlots, where they’re exposed to the elements. Cows used by the dairy industry may suffer from mastitis, a painful infection of the udder, and their male offspring are often sold to veal farms, where they may be chained for months in tiny crates.

At slaughterhouses, cows are shot in the head with a captive-bolt gun, are hung up by one leg, and have their throats cut. They are then skinned—and some remain conscious throughout the entire process.

For more information, please visit PETA.org and AllAnimals.org.