Photos: PETA Truck Shows Pigs Bound for Slaughter, Blasts Their Cries Outside Smithfield Eatery

Photos: PETA Truck Shows Pigs Bound for Slaughter, Blasts Their Cries Outside Smithfield Eatery

Smithfield, London – Today, PETA’s “Hell on Wheels”truck rolled into Smithfield, formerly the home of the UK’s oldest and largest meat market, to give passersby an up-close look at the suffering behind every bacon sandwich and pork chop. The hyper-realistic pig transport truck, covered with images of real pigs on their way to slaughter, bombarded diners heading into St John’s and other London eateries that serve pig flesh with actual recordings of the animals panicked screams. PETA activists also gathered outside with signs reading “Meat is Murder”. 

Images are available here.

“Every bacon sandwich, sausage roll, and pork chop came from a once-living, sensitive individual who was crammed onto a truck for a terrifying journey to their death,” says PETA Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen. “PETA’s ‘Hell on Wheels’ truck is an appeal to anyone who eats animals to remember that the meat industry is cruel to them and that the only kind meal is a vegan one.”

PETA notes that pigs are soothed by music, love playing ball, sleep in “pig piles,” and female pigs are naturally doting mothers. In the meat industry, 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 taken away from them after only a few weeks. Workers chop off piglets’ tails and clip their teeth with pliers – and the animals endure intense confinement before their throats are slashed in abattoirs.

PETA’s “Hell on Wheels” truck is touring the UK and Ireland until November 7.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a pig is a dog is a boy. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.  

Contact:

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

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