Pigs’ Desperate Holiday Plea to Kind Kids: ‘I’m Me, Not Meat!’
Four New PETA Billboards Will Encourage Youngsters in Major Pork-Producing State to Talk to Their Parents About Not Eating Animals
For Immediate Release:
December 11, 2017
Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382
Just in time for the holidays—and because Indiana is the fifth top pork-producing state—PETA is serving up food for thought via four new billboards that just went up near several local elementary schools. The ads show a pig’s face alongside the words “I’m ME, Not MEAT. Kids: Ask Your Parents About Going Vegan This Holiday Season.”
The billboards are located at 515 S. Ewing St. and at 2401 W. Jefferson St., near Bloomingdale Elementary School; at 4210 N. Wells St., near Franke Park Elementary; and at 4320 Ardmore Ave., near Indian Village Elementary.
“Children have a natural empathy for animals, so they’d be horrified to learn that piglets raised for meat are stolen from their mothers when they’re as young as 10 days old,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “This holiday season, PETA is calling on children and their parents to choose healthy and delicious vegan meals that keep cruelty off the table.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that pigs are intelligent, sophisticated animals who can even play video games. But in the U.S., 115 million of them are killed for food every year. On farms, mother pigs are squeezed into narrow metal stalls barely larger than they are and kept almost constantly pregnant or nursing. Pigs’ tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and males are castrated—all without any painkillers. At slaughterhouses, they’re hung upside down and bled to death, often while still conscious.
Eating meat has been linked to an increased risk of suffering from cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity—and the World Health Organization says that eating processed meat, such as bacon, causes cancer. Savory vegan roasts are packed with flavor and protein with no saturated animal fat or cholesterol.
PETA offers a free vegan holiday guide (available here) full of recipes, tips, and more. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
