Update: Ad Blaming Meat-Eaters for Amazon Fires Up Near Brazilian Consulate

Graphic PETA Billboard Points Out That Cattle Ranchers Are Burning Down the Rainforest to Meet Greedy, Global Demand for Meat

For Immediate Release:
September 17, 2019

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

As fires rage on in the Amazon rainforest, PETA has hit Los Angeles—a sister city to Salvador, Brazil—with a graphic new billboard now up by the Brazilian consulate building 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 for Them. Go Vegan.”

“The demand for meat is fueling the fires that are robbing humans and other animals alike of their rainforest homes and causing global climate change,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “The easiest and most effective thing that everyone can do is to go vegan now.”

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 vital if we are to combat the worst effects of climate change.

In addition to helping to combat deforestation, decreasing their carbon footprint, and sparing the lives of nearly 200 animals each per year, people who go vegan reduce their risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and other health conditions.

The billboard is located at 8170 Beverly Blvd.

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.