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 Off the Road by Going Vegan

For Immediate Release:
July 15, 2019

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

In memory of the chickens who suffered and died when the truck carrying them crashed on Furnace Hills Pike/Route 501 near Brickerville on April 15, PETA has placed a billboard nearby 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, the chickens who lost their lives on this stretch of highway won’t have died in vain,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s billboard pays tribute to these sensitive animals and encourages motorists to help prevent tragedies like this by keeping all animals off their plates.”

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. In the egg industry, hens are confined to a space no bigger than an iPad and part of their beak is cut off with a hot blade—without any pain relief—in order to prevent them from pecking each other out of stress and frustration. They’re sent to be slaughtered once their bodies wear out and they’re no longer considered useful for egg production. At the slaughterhouse, their throats are cut, often while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.

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. The group made note of over 90 crashes involving trucks transporting animals in 2018 and has documented 55 .

The billboard is located at 2098 PA-72 in Manheim.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.