Roadside Memorial Requested for Cows Who Died After Trailer Crash

Tribute Would Encourage Drivers to Travel Safely and Think About the Fates of All Road Users

For Immediate Release:
August 2, 2016

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-482-7382

After two of 40 cows being transported to slaughter had to be put down on Wednesday as a result of sustaining serious injuries in a crash on Highway 89 northwest of Toronto, a local resident who saw the aftermath of the accident sent a letter yesterday to Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation asking it to erect a 5-foot-tall tombstone memorial provided by PETA at the scene. The tribute (image here) would feature an image of a cow next the words “In Memory of the Cows Who Suffered and Died at This Spot, July 2016. Try Vegan” and would remind all drivers, including those with animals on board, to travel safely—while pointing out that we can all prevent further animal suffering and death by going vegan.

“PETA’s roadside memorial will remind livestock transporters that the least they can do is drive safely and spare animals a horrifying experience on an already terrifying trip to the slaughterhouse,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Our hope is that it will also encourage everyone on the road to give a thought to the suffering that these smart, sensitive animals endure for nothing more than a fleeting meal.”

The driver of the trailer has been charged with running a red light.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that before cows are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughterhouses, they suffer immensely on industrialized meat and dairy farms. These sensitive, curious animals spend their short lives on cramped, filthy feedlots without protection from extreme temperatures. Calves are torn away from their mothers within hours of birth and are castrated and branded without painkillers. At the slaughterhouse, workers shoot cows in the head with a captive-bolt gun, hang them up by one leg, cut their throats, and skin them—often while they’re still conscious.

PETA’s letter to Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.