Update: Ads Blaming Meat-Eaters for Amazon Fires Now Up at Yale University

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

For Immediate Release:
October 3, 2019

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

As the Amazon rainforest fires rage on—and because Yale University boasts a renowned environmental studies program—PETA is running ads on sidewalk kiosks near the campus that show 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 and leather 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 and leather production, either for grazing or for growing food for cattle, including those in the U.S. market. 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 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 has also run the ad series—which is focused on meat and leather and was designed for PETA Germany by fischerAppelt—near a leather manufacturer in Chicago, near the Brazilian Consulate in Los Angeles, and elsewhere.

The ads are located at the intersections of Sherman and Chapel streets, Audubon and Orange streets, Church and George streets, and College Street and Frontage Road and on Temple Street between Crown and Chapel streets.

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.