Update: ‘I’m ME, Not MEAT’ Billboard Now Up Near Site of Pigs’ Deaths

PETA Memorial Honors Pigs Who Died in Wreck, Encourages People to Help Keep Animals off the Road by Going Vegan

For Immediate Release:
July 15, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

In honor of the 10 pigs who died when the truck carrying them overturned on E. Napier Avenue on June 28, PETA has placed a billboard in the area showing a pig’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 pigs won’t have died in vain,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s billboard pays tribute to these pigs’ 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 a human-supremacist worldview. In today’s meat industry, mother pigs are squeezed into narrow metal stalls barely larger than their bodies and kept almost constantly pregnant or nursing. Pigs’ tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and males are castrated—all without any pain relief. At the slaughterhouse, they’re hung upside down—often while still conscious—and bled to death.

In 2018 alone, there were more than 90 accidents in the U.S. involving trucks used to transport pigs, chickens, turkeys, and cows. So far in 2019, PETA has already noted 55 accidents involving vehicles carrying animals used for food.

The billboard is located on I-94/U.S. 31 southbound, just north of exit 33.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.