PETA Requests Roadside Memorial After Pigs Die in Crash

PETA Requests Roadside Memorial After Pigs Die in Crash

Group Hopes to Save Lives by Encouraging Drivers to Travel Safely and Choose Vegan Meals

Edinburgh – Following an accident on the A1 in East Lothian last week in which a lorry carrying pigs overturned and caught fire, causing immense suffering and killing countless pigs, PETA sent a letter to East Lothian Council asking for planning approval to erect a tombstone memorial at the scene.

The tribute would feature an image of a pig next to the words “In memory of the pigs who suffered and died in a lorry accident at this spot. … Try vegan.” It would remind all drivers, including those with animals on board, to slow down and travel safely – while also pointing out that everyone can prevent abattoir-bound lorries from travelling the motorway by choosing vegan meals.

“For nothing more than some chops, this crash left animals suffering on an already terrifying trip, likely to the abattoir,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA’s roadside memorial can prevent further tragedies, including human ones, by reminding people to drive with care and spare a thought for animals by no longer eating them.”

As documented by PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview – before pigs are loaded onto lorries bound for abattoirs, they suffer immensely on British farms.

Many piglets’ teeth are clipped or ground down, and their tails are cut off without any painkillers. Before they give birth, mother pigs are confined to farrowing crates so small that they can’t even turn around, let alone fulfil their strong urge to build a nest as they would naturally do. They’re forcibly impregnated over and over again, and each litter of piglets is torn away from them after only a few weeks and transported to fattening pens before eventually being sent to slaughter.

PETA’s letter is available on request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]

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