Thanksgiving Turkey’s Desperate Plea to Kind Kids: ‘I’m ME, Not MEAT!’
New PETA Billboard Will Encourage Youngsters to Talk to Their Parents About Not Eating Animals
For Immediate Release:
October 3, 2017
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
Ahead of Thanksgiving on October 9, PETA is placing a new billboard this week near several local elementary schools. The ad will show a turkey with resplendent black-and-white plumage alongside the words “I’m ME, Not MEAT. Kids: Ask Your Parents About Going Vegan.” The billboard will aim to spark a family dialogue about going vegan by showing children that animals are individuals who shouldn’t be carved up and eaten on Thanksgiving or any other day of the year.
The billboard will be located at 197 Watt St., not far from Machray, Donwood, Sister MacNamara, and Faith Academy elementary schools.
“Children have a natural empathy for animals, so they’d be horrified to learn that gentle turkeys are babies themselves when they’re strung upside down and slaughtered,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “This Thanksgiving, PETA is calling on children and their parents to keep cruelty off the table.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that Canadians ate 7.3 million turkeys last year, 2.6 million of whom were killed for Thanksgiving alone. In nature, turkeys are protective and loving parents as well as spirited explorers who can climb trees and run as fast as 40 kilometers per hour. In the wild, Turkeys can live up to 10 years, but those raised for food are normally slaughtered when they’re between 12 and 26 weeks old. The young birds are hung by their feet from metal shackles and dragged through an electrified bath that can cause them to have full-body tremors. They’re often still conscious when their throats are slit and they’re dumped into a bath of scalding-hot water to remove their feathers.
PETA offers a free vegan starter kit (available here) full of recipes, tips, and more. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
