Statue of ‘Maimed’ Chicken Would Memorialize Animals Hacked Apart at Old Tyson Foods Factory

For Immediate Release:
January 9, 2024

Contact:
Brittney Williams 202-483-7382

In remembrance of the millions of chickens and other animals who were tormented, killed, and sent to the Tyson Foods meat-processing plant that just closed its doors in the Paxon area, PETA is applying to place a statue of an injured chicken in Jacksonville to remind everyone that animals—who feel pain and fear just as humans do—don’t have to be mutilated to make nuggets and other Tyson products if humans take personal responsibility for what they eat and choose to leave animals off their plates. The Jacksonville facility is one of eight plants that Tyson recently shut down or is closing soon in an effort to cut costs.

Credit: PETA

“Chickens are gentle birds who don’t deserve to be slammed into shackles and violently killed, especially when we have a wealth of vegan food choices,” says PETA Senior Director Danielle Katz. “PETA urges everyone to recognize this closure as an invitation to leave animals in peace and is ready to help anyone go vegan by providing free resources at PETA.org.”

In 2020, PETA purchased stock in Tyson to push the company to shut down its dangerous and dirty slaughter lines and focus exclusively on producing vegan foods—like the plant-powered nuggets, burgers, sausages, and other products offered through its vegan brand, Raised & Rooted.

All animals used by the meat industry suffer, and chickens killed for their flesh are crowded by the tens of thousands into filthy, ammonia-ridden sheds and bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight. At the slaughterhouse, their throats are cut, often while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. Their bodies are then sent to a meat-processing plant, where they’re cut apart and packaged for store shelves.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.