‘You Can’t Be an Egg-Eating Feminist,’ Proclaims New Billboard

PETA Wants Women to Protect Hens (and Cows) From Sexual Exploitation

For Immediate Release:
November 26, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

“Face It—You Can’t Claim to Be a Feminist and Still Eat Eggs.” That’s the message on a new PETA billboard that just went up in San Jose, which boasts the highest median income for women of all U.S. cities and is home to several tech companies and universities. The ad continues, “Eggs and Dairy Are a Product of the Abuse of Females.”

The billboard, located at 1221 Oakland Rd., will remain up for one month.

“San Jose is a city of strong women and thoughtful students, which makes it the perfect place to spark a conversation about the blatant misogyny of the egg and dairy industries,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Female animals are sexually exploited so that humans can drink their milk and steal their eggs, and PETA’s billboard encourages everyone to help end this oppression by going egg-free and switching to using vegan milks and cheeses.”

A new video from PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—explores how using eggs and dairy “products” exploits females’ reproductive systems and therefore must be rejected by feminists. Dairy farmers keep cows almost constantly pregnant by forcibly inseminating them—by shoving instruments into their vaginas—while they’re restrained in a device that industry insiders have called a “rape rack.” The cows’ beloved calves are taken away from them shortly after birth so that, in a perverse act, their mothers’ milk can be sold for human consumption.

In the egg industry, hens are confined to a space no bigger than an iPad, and parts of their beaks are sliced off with a hot blade and without any painkillers in order to prevent them from pecking each other out of stress and frustration. Once their bodies wear out and they’re no longer considered useful for egg production, they’re pulled from their cages by their wings and sent to slaughter.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.