‘Wild Pig Chase: A Texas Disgrace’ Ad to Target Governor’s Mansion

Mobile PETA Billboard Will Also Circle the Capitol Building to Protest Tackling and Dragging Screaming Pigs at ‘Family’ Events

For Immediate Release:
December 2, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Texas native Woody Harrelson has told Gov. Greg Abbott that wild-pig chases are a “violent spectacle” perpetrated by bullies. Now, all this week, a new mobile PETA billboard will circle the Governor’s Mansion, governor’s office, and Capitol and call on Abbott to end wild-pig chases, in which participants chase, tackle, and terrorize terrified pigs.

“Tormenting panicked pigs is a twisted take on ‘entertainment’ and a stain on the Lone Star State’s reputation,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “A wild pig feels pain and fear just as much as a dog, a cat, or a human does, and PETA is calling on Governor Abbott to end these cruel spectacles immediately.”

Video footage from this year’s event near Bandera shows staff dragging young wild pigs by one or more legs around the arena. Contestants chased the petrified animals; grabbed them by the ears, tail, or snout; lifted them off the ground by the legs; and stuffed them into sacks as they cried out. Many panicked animals leapt face-first into the metal arena fencing as they frantically tried to escape, cutting and bloodying their faces. Children at the event were egged on to participate.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, which is the human-supremacist belief that other animals are nothing more than commodities to use, abuse, and torment at will.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.