West Allis, Wis. — As the World Beef Expo (September 27–29) approaches, PETA has placed a billboard just four blocks away from the fairgrounds where the expo will be held showing a cow’s face next to the words “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the Individual. Go Vegan.”
“Just like humans, cows are made of flesh and blood, feel pain and fear, have unique personalities, and value their own lives,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s billboard encourages everyone to help spare these animals miserable lives and terrifying deaths simply by choosing vegan meals.”
Cows in the meat industry are often confined to cramped, filthy feedlots without protection from the elements. Calves are torn away from their mothers within hours of birth and are castrated and branded without pain relief. At the slaughterhouse, workers shoot cows in the head with a captive-bolt gun, hang them up by one leg, and cut their throat—often while they’re still conscious and able to feel pain.
In addition to saving the lives of more than 200 animals every year, each person who goes vegan helps the planet considerably. Animal agriculture is responsible for nearly a fifth of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions and is devastating the planet on a global scale. More than 90% of the Amazon rainforest that’s been cleared since 1970 is used for grazing or for growing food for cattle who are ultimately slaughtered for meat.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers a free vegan starter kit (available) full of recipes, tips, and more. PETA’s billboard is located four blocks from the fairgrounds, at the intersection of W. Greenfield Avenue and S. 75th Street, facing west, in West Allis. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
