‘Feeding Kids Meat Is Child Abuse’, Reads PETA Billboard In Hometown Of ‘Britain’S Fattest Mother’

For Immediate Release:
21 May 2009

Contact:
Samantha Glover 020 7357 9229, ext 229; [email protected]

Coventry – A billboard showing an obese child about to devour a hamburger next to the tagline “Feeding Kids Meat Is Child Abuse. Fight the Fat. Go Veg” has been erected by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Europe in Coventry. Coventry is home to 24-year-old Leanne Salt, who at 30 stone has been dubbed “Britain’s fattest mother”. Salt has admitted to feeding her triplets chicken nuggets and burgers since they were 6 months old. When PETA placed the same billboard in County Durham in 2006, it brought a stream of objections from people who have a vested interest in promoting meat, but the Advertising Standards Authority dismissed the complaints.

The billboard is located near Hare & Squirrel on New Union Street, Coventry.

The number of overweight schoolchildren is high and increasing, with 16.9 per cent of boys and 16.8 per cent of girls between 2 and 10 now classified as obese. A 2007 article in the Telegraph reported that half of all UK children could be obese by 2050. And it isn’t just crisps, fizzy drinks and other “junk” foods that are making kids fat and unhealthy. The world-renowned paediatrician Benjamin Spock, author of the highly acclaimed parenting guide Dr Spock’s Baby and Child Care, wrote, “Children who grow up getting their nutrition from plant foods rather than meats have a tremendous health advantage. They are less likely to develop weight problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and some forms of cancer”.
 
“The damage caused by a meat-based diet is like a ticking time bomb in kids”, says PETA’s Poorva Joshipura. “Vegetarian kids are slimmer, have more energy, get better grades and are all-around better off than their meat-eating peers are. These are facts that Ms Salt and other parents should take to heart.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.