Shocking New Ad Blames Meat-Eaters for Amazon Fires in Corvallis
Cattle Ranchers Are Burning Down the Rainforest to Meet Greedy, Global Demand for Meat, PETA Points Out
For Immediate Release:
August 29, 2019
Contact:
Megan Witsie 202-483-7382
As fires rage in the Amazon rainforest, PETA will hit Oregon State University—which boasts a renowned environmental sciences/studies program—with a graphic new billboard campaign that shows a cow attacking a scarlet macaw set against a fiery background and the words “Eating Meat Kills More Animals Than You Think.” The ad explains, “Ranchers set fires in the Amazon rainforest to graze cattle and grow crops to feed them. Go vegan.”
“The demand for meat in the U.S. and around the world is the cause of the deadly fires that are robbing humans and other animals of their rainforest homes and delivering global climate change,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “People can decry the devastation all day long, but as long as they have meat in their mouths instead of going vegan, they might as well whistle into the wind.”
More than 90% of the Amazon rainforest that’s been cleared since 1970 is used for meat production, either for grazing or for growing food for cattle, including those in the U.S. market. In addition, the United Nations states that animal agriculture is responsible for nearly a fifth of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions—and warns that a global shift to vegan eating is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change.
In addition to combating deforestation, decreasing their carbon footprint, and sparing the lives of nearly 200 animals per year, each person who goes vegan reduces their risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and other health conditions.
PETA also plans to run the ad—which was designed for PETA Germany by fischerAppelt—in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles (the sister cities of Brasilia and Salvador, Brazil, respectively) and elsewhere.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
