Photos: Avian Flu Outbreak, Mass Chicken Killings Prompt Nationwide Vegan Push From PETA

For Immediate Release:
April 5, 2024

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Norfolk, Va. – Following news that yet another bird flu outbreak is sweeping the nation and nearly 2 million chickens have been killed by Texas-based egg seller Cal-Maine Foods Inc., PETA is hitting cities across the country with a multipronged campaign warning of the dangers of continuing to eat meat, eggs, and dairy from animals confined to filthy, severely crowded sheds or feedlots and encouraging people to take the simple and obvious step of going vegan.

PETA is talking with ad companies about placing a stark, sky-high warning near Cal-Maine’s Texas operation and in major cities across the country, reminding everyone that farms, feedlots, and slaughterhouses are breeding grounds for a host of deadly pathogens that can easily mutate and spread to humans.

PETA’s sky-high warning

PETA supporters took action in the Lone Star State yesterday by flocking to Klyde Warren Park in Dallas, where they gave away dozens of delicious vegan hard-boiled WunderEggs and dished out free vegan starter kits with tips and recipes for eating vegan.

Credit: PETA

“Hell on Wheels”—PETA’s life-size, hyper-realistic chicken transport truck covered with images of real chickens crammed into crates on their way to slaughter—is in the midst of a cross-country tour and is currently in Mississippi, near Cal-Maine’s headquarters, bombarding diners with actual recorded sounds of dying birds’ cries along with a subliminal message every 10 seconds suggesting that people go vegan. The vexatious vehicle delivers the horrors of the slaughterhouse straight to restaurant patrons who may be thinking of chowing down on fried chicken during lunch and will soon be on its way to Arkansas and Louisiana.

Hell on Wheels. Credit: PETA

“Eating meat, eggs, and dairy from deplorable operations where thousands or even millions of animals are confined amid their own waste not only is disgusting but also will unquestionably lead to another pandemic,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA urges everyone to go vegan now, before it’s too late.”

PETA points out that the majority of diseases that have caused the pandemic or epidemics in recent years originated in animals before being transmitted to humans, including COVID-19, AIDS, avian flu, swine flu, SARS, MERS, Ebola, and Zika. Strains of avian flu have already spread, decimating wild bird populations around the globe.

For those looking to keep pathogens off their plates or simply avoid paying skyrocketing egg prices, PETA offers a roundup of delicious, animal-friendly, and safe vegan egg options as well as a vegan egg replacer guide for home cooks.

Last year alone, at least 58 million birds confined on farms were systematically killed to limit the spread of the virus, often using horrific methods, including ventilation shutdown (VSD), a prolonged and terrifying process in which workers shut off all airflow to the sheds in which the animals are kept, slowly suffocating them; VSD Plus, which involves adding heat or gas to the air, depriving the animals of oxygen, and raising the temperature to as high as 120 degrees, essentially baking them alive; and slowly suffocating them with a substance similar to firefighting foam.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.