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A vegan charity is placing two billboards to raise awareness around the 1 million calves who died as a result of Midwest flooding in recent weeks.
The New York Times described the extreme weather conditions in March as ‘record floods’ saying they were taking a ‘devastating toll on farmers and ranchers at a moment when they can least afford it’.
But animal rights charity PETA says that while humans affected by the bomb cyclone and extreme flooding in the Midwest ‘had advance notice and help evacuating, animals trapped on meat and dairy farms were offered no such chance’.
Drowned animals
“Many of them drowned or experienced other painful and terrifying deaths in the floods, including 700 pigs on just one farm as well as more than 1 million calves,” said PETA.
“The calves, most of whom were being raised for the beef industry, were swept into freezing floodwaters and have been washing up dead along the banks of rivers. The cows who survived the floods will most likely die as a result of the lack of food and drinkable water or be sent to the slaughterhouse.”
Vegan billboards
Now PETA is placing billboards in Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, which it says can ‘spell out how we can prevent future disasters like this one’.
The boards – on U.S. Route 71 at E. 63rd Street and on I-70 at E. Truman Road – say: “Stop Eating Meat! They Die for Your Cruel and Dirty Habit.”
“If this message of compassion inspires just one person to leave cows off their plate, then they won’t add to the millions of animals who experience a terrifying death every year, whether in a slaughterhouse or in a natural disaster,” PETA Executive Vice President, Tracy Reiman, said in a statement.
“PETA’s billboard urges meat-eaters to listen to the flood of reasons why they should change their ways and embrace compassionate vegan eating.”
Animal flood deaths
These drownings follow the death toll of Hurricane Florence last September, where more than 3.4 million animals were left to die, locked in inescapable buildings by farmers who fled to save themselves.
The hurricane – a category 4 storm – caused flooding across the Carolinas. Vegan activists with the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and Brother Wolf Animal Sanctuary, as well as independent activists, entered flooded North Carolina factory farms in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence to show the extent of the devastation.
“Activists found barns with thousands of drowned chickens, and dumpsters filled with hundreds of dead piglets, as well adult pigs,” said a spokesperson for DxE in a statement sent to Plant Based News.
“These animals are sensitive, intelligent individuals, yet corporations intentionally neglect them to brutal deaths for the sake of the bottom line,” added activist Arwen Carlin.
