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

PETA Memorial Honors Chickens Killed in Wreck, Encourages Everyone to Keep Animals Out of Transport Trucks by Going Vegan

For Immediate Release:
August 15, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

To pay tribute to the chickens who were killed or grievously injured in a truck crash in Middletown on June 6, PETA has placed a billboard near the site of the wreck pointing out that we can all prevent animals’ suffering and death by choosing vegan foods. The billboard, which is located 2 miles south of the crash site on Route 301 near Churchtown Road and will remain in place for four weeks, shows 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, the chickens who were killed won’t have died in vain,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s billboard pays tribute to their brief lives and encourages motorists to help prevent future suffering by keeping chickens and all other animals off their plates.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that 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 often cut while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.

The June 6 crash was the fourth involving trucks transporting animals in Delaware in two years. Route 301 is a gateway to the Delmarva Peninsula, where chicken “processing” is a major industry: In the past year alone, about 605 million chickens were raised and killed for food in the area.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.