Will Meat Processing Plant Become an Animal Empathy Museum? PETA Seeks to Lease Facility From Tyson Foods
For Immediate Release:
December 5, 2024
Contact:
Maddy Missett 202-483-7382
Following Monday’s announcement that Tyson Foods will soon close its meat processing operation in Emporia, Kansas, PETA today sent a letter to President and CEO Donnie King offering to explore leasing the 328,000-square-foot facility to convert it into an empathy museum and vegan café that would serve tasty animal-free fare. The museum would enable visitors to learn about cows’ and pigs’ intelligence and sociability and to see them as individuals rather than objects to be killed, cut up, and consumed. It could also create jobs for some of the displaced workers and increase tourism in the area.
“There’s no undoing the pain, misery, and terror that cows and pigs have suffered for old eating habits, but an empathy museum would be one way to honor the millions killed and show people why they should leave animals off their plates,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA urges Tyson’s to consider leasing this soon-to-be-shuttered house of horrors.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness and free Vegan Starter Kits for anyone considering making the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to King follows.
December 5, 2024
Donnie King
President and CEO
Tyson Foods
Dear Mr. King:
I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally, including many thousands across Arkansas—in response to news that Tyson plans to permanently close your processing plant in Emporia, Kansas, in February. We’re potentially interested in leasing your facility to convert it into an empathy museum where people could learn about the intelligence and sociability of pigs and cows and appreciate them as individuals deserving of understanding and respect. It could also create jobs for some displaced workers and increase tourism in the area. Allow me to elaborate.
It’s easy to forget where meat comes from when you see it in neatly wrapped packages at a supermarket, but as you know, the animals don’t go peacefully. Most of the more than 33 million cows and nearly 128 million pigs killed in the U.S. annually for food spend their short lives on filthy factory farms where they endure stressful crowding and confinement as well as routine mutilations without any pain relief before being sent on a terrifying journey to a slaughterhouse. And as our investigations into Tyson facilities have shown, some endure horrific abuse at the hands of low-paid, often frustrated slaughterhouse workers or are maimed by equipment.
Surely, everyone has the right to see this process for what it is and to consider who animals are, what makes them tick, and how they feel. Our empathy museum would include informational displays highlighting fascinating and often conveniently ignored facts about these animals and would remind visitors that pigs and cows should not be seen as bacon, chops, or burgers but as living, feeling beings just like themselves. Pigs can play video games, can form strong social bonds with other pigs, and are intelligent problem solvers. Cows are social animals who have best friends and long-term memories, like to play, and display various personality types. To ensure that visitors can ponder the violence involved in putting animals into packages and then on plates, we’d also be interested in leasing some meat grinders, bone saws, and other items used in the facility.
Our empathy museum would also include a vegan café featuring delicious vegan foods like Raised & Rooted burgers and sausages, and our gift shop would offer cow and pig plushies for kids under 12. We would remind visitors that in the 21st century, when the food industry—including Tyson—is producing superior vegan options that are delicious and healthy and the demand for vegan meats is ever rising, there is absolutely no justification for continuing to kill and eat animals.
Thank you for your consideration. Please be in touch about this idea.
Very truly yours,
Ingrid Newkirk
President
