Update: ‘I’m ME, Not MEAT’ Billboard Rises to Honor Chickens Killed in Wreck

PETA Memorial Near Site of Truck Crash Encourages People to Keep Animals off the Road by Going Vegan

For Immediate Release:
March 5, 2020

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

In memory of the chickens who were killed when the truck carrying them overturned on Highway 71 near Square Rock Creek on January 20, PETA has placed a billboard near the crash site urging everyone to see chickens as individuals—and go vegan.

“If PETA’s message of compassion inspires just one driver to go vegan, then these gentle birds won’t have died in vain,” says PETA Director of Campaigns Danielle Katz. “We can all eat delicious vegan food and prevent animals from suffering on the side of the road or under the slaughterhouse knife.”

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 and dramatically helps the planet: Animal agriculture is responsible for nearly a fifth of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions and is devastating the Earth on a global scale.

PETA notes that there were more than 100 crashes in 2019 involving trucks carrying animals used for food—and there have already been 22 since the start of 2020.

The billboard is located at 777 U.S. 71 Bypass (right across the street from Waldron Realty). It’s about 4 miles from the crash site and four minutes from Tyson Foods.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is the human-supremacist worldview that other species are nothing more than commodities. For more information, please visit PETA.org.