Staten Island Fiery Crash Of Truck Carrying Chickens For Slaughter Prompts Plans For PETA Memorial Billboard Near Site

Editor’s Note: We asked PETA how many of these types of accidents, which killed many chickens last week, occur each year.  According to PETA, there have been seven road accidents like this so far this year (and it’s only three months in!), but many are never reported in the news, which they monitor.  To give you an idea of the breadth of the problem, where animals raised for human consumption are killed accidentally, before they reach their final destination in a slaughterhouse, they have provided the following information and links:

One single barn fire can kill hundreds of thousands of animals, such as: https://www.peta.org/media/news-releases/barn-blaze-prompts-peta-memorial-for-hens-killed/

You might also see: https://www.peta.org/media/news-releases/feds-find-thousands-of-birds-frozen-to-death-peta-calls-for-cameras-throughout-lincoln-premium-poultry-operations/

Of course, as they have mentioned again and again, the best way to avoid causing suffering to animals, or to reduce the number of animals that suffer during the process of raising them for human consumption, is to leave them off your plate. 

Staten Island, N.Y. — In honor of the birds who died in agony last Thursday morning after a truck carrying them caught fire on the Staten Island Expressway near Western Avenue, PETA and Humane Long Island plan to place a billboard near the crash site pointing out who’s responsible for their deaths: everyone who isn’t vegan.

“Each of these chickens was an individual who died in terror and agony as smoke and flames engulfed her,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges everyone to prevent birds from being crammed into trucks in the first place by taking the easy step of going vegan.”

Chickens killed for their flesh are crowded by the tens of thousands into filthy sheds and bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight. Those used for egg production are confined to cramped barns, where each bird has no more than a square foot of space. At the slaughterhouse, their throats are cut, often while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.

Each person who goes vegan saves nearly 200 animals every year; reduces their own risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and obesity; dramatically shrinks their carbon footprint; and helps prevent future pandemics. SARS, swine flu, bird flu, and COVID-19 all stemmed from confining and killing animals for food.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Banner Image: Planned Billboard memorial design. Image Credit – PETA and Humane Long Island

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization in the world, and PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally. PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: in laboratories, in the food industry, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment business. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of rodents, birds, and other animals who are often considered “pests” as well as cruelty to domesticated animals. PETA works through public education, investigative newsgathering and reporting, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.