Big Stink Planned As Beef Bigwigs Converge On Trade Show
For Immediate Release:
20 May 2003
Contact:
Sean Gifford 020 7357 9229, ext. 226; 0773 457 9092 (mobile)
Dawn Carr 020 7357 9229, ext. 224
Inverurie, Scotland – A man in a huge cow costume, carrying a sign that reads, ‘Meat Stinks!’, will lead members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in a face-off with UK beef-trade barons and farmers outside ‘BEEF 2003’ – the beef-industry trade show – in order to protest the cruelty and filth of factory-farming practises. ARRESTS ARE EXPECTED.
Date: Wednesday, 21 May
Time: 12 noon sharp
Place: Thainstone Centre main entrance,
approximately 14 miles northwest of Aberdeen off the A96
What’s PETA’s beef with beef? Factory-farming methods in the UK and elsewhere deny cows the most basic of comforts. One-year-old calves are crammed into crowded sheds and fed a diet unnaturally high in protein in order to spur rapid growth. Cattle must be fed antibiotics in order to keep them from succumbing to stress-induced illnesses, and the animals are often kept on concrete in fattening sheds, resulting in serious leg ailments. Most cattle undergo painful mutilations, such as being castrated or having their horns burnt off with caustic chemicals. At slaughter, ineffective stunning is commonplace. Abattoir veterinarian Gabriel Meurer, who worked at Woolley Brothers abattoir in Sheffield, explained, ‘Not many animals stand still. They are … frightened to death and some move violently. The animals are never given time to calm down. … Sometimes the slaughterman misses, wounding the animal terribly, instead of stunning [him or her]’.
Beef is also devastating to human health and the environment. Runoff from cattle operations chokes streams and tributaries with untreated organic waste, and factory farms consume vast amounts of fresh water. Beef consumption has been linked to heart disease, strokes, diabetes, obesity and several types of cancer. British vegetarians are 50 per cent less likely to develop heart disease than their meat-eating counterparts.
‘Farmers flock to the beef trade show to learn how to squeeze every last pence out of miserable, factory-farmed animals and the health-oblivious consumer’, says PETA UK’s Sean Gifford. ‘The best thing people can do to slim down, shape up and have some heart is to go vegan.’
For more information, please visit PETA’s Web site PETAUK.org.