Update: ‘I’m ME, Not MEAT’ Billboard Now Up in West Union Near Site of Truck Crash

PETA Memorial Honors Chickens Killed in Wreck, Encourages People to Help Keep Animals off the Road by Going Vegan

For Immediate Release:
May 30, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

In honor of the roughly 2,500 chickens who died on May 14 when the truck carrying them overturned on Highway 18, PETA has placed a billboard near the crash site showing a chicken’s face next to the words “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the Individual. Go Vegan.“

“If this message of compassion inspires just one driver to go vegan, these gentle chickens won’t have died in vain,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s billboard pays tribute to their too-short lives and encourages motorists to help prevent tragedies like this one by keeping all animals off their plates.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is the human-supremacist view that other species are nothing more than commodities. Chickens killed for their flesh are crammed by the tens of thousands into filthy 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. Every person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals each year.

In 2018 alone, there were more than 90 accidents involving trucks used to transport chickens, pigs, turkeys, and cows in the U.S. In 2019, PETA has already noted 45 crashes involving trucks carrying animals used for food.

The billboard is located at 10868 Harding Rd. (about a block east of the intersection with Hansen Boulevard) in West Union.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.