Photo Op: ‘Hell on Wheels’ Is Coming—Chicken Truck to Blast Dying Birds’ Cries Outside Denver Food & Wine Festival
For Immediate Release:
September 5, 2024
Contact:
Reed Bolonyi 202-483-7382
Visitors on their way into the Denver Food & Wine Festival Grand Tasting are in for an earful on Saturday, when “Hell on Wheels”—PETA’s life-size, hyperrealistic chicken transport truck covered with images of real chickens crammed into crates on their way to slaughter—will bombard them with actual recorded sounds of the birds’ cries along with a subliminal message every 10 seconds suggesting that people go vegan.
The vexatious vehicle’s arrival comes as a bird flu outbreak continues to spread across the U.S., resulting in the killing of over 18 million chickens nationwide since the beginning of the year. The virus has also been found in multiple species of mammals, including over 190 herds of cows in the dairy industry. The largest outbreak of bird flu infections in humans in U.S. history occurred on a farm in Weld County in July.
“Behind every hot wing or piece 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 hazardous to human health and that the only kind meal is a vegan one.”
Where: Tivoli Quad (across from the Denver Food & Wine Festival), 1000 Larimer St., Denver
When: Saturday, September 7, 12 noon
“Hell on Wheels” will also stop at Fat Shack in Boulder on Thursday, September 12, and Comet Chicken in Fort Collins on Saturday, September 14.
In the meat industry, chickens are confined by the tens of thousands to severely crowded, filthy sheds and bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight. Hens used for egg production are crammed together inside wire-floored cages where they don’t even have enough room to spread their wings. At slaughterhouses, workers cut their throats—often while they’re still conscious—and scald many to death in defeathering tanks.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. PETA’s free vegan starter kit is filled with tips to help anyone looking to make the switch.
For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
