‘Violent City’ Ranking Prompts ‘Peace in Our Lunchtime’ Billboard

PETA Ad Suggests That Nonviolence Can Begin on Our Plates

For Immediate Release:
September 29, 2017

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

In response to the recently released FBI figures naming Memphis the third most violent big city in America, PETA is weighing in with a plea for all-encompassing nonviolence. The group plans to run a billboard showing a fist clutching a bunch of carrots next to the words “Peace in Our Lunchtime!” and “Choose Peace. Choose Vegan.”

“Violence and cruelty to any living being beget more violence and cruelty, whereas compassion for animals who suffer and are killed for the table promotes understanding and kindness,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s message of peace encourages everyone to save lives, promote nonviolence, and make a difference every day simply by choosing vegan meals.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that animals used for food experience joy, pain, fear, love, and grief and value their lives, just as humans do. But in today’s meat and dairy industries, cows are forcibly separated from their beloved calves, chickens’ throats are cut while they’re still conscious, piglets are castrated without painkillers, and fish are cut open while they’re still alive.

In addition to sparing the lives of more than 100 animals a year, people who go vegan reduce their risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity—an issue important to Memphis, which took the number two spot on the 2017 “Fattest Cities in America” list.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.