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A billboard in Rome – close to St Peter’s Square in Vatican City – is urging people to ditch animal products for Lent.
The poster – by animal rights charity PETA – features a pig next to the slogan: “I’m Someone, Not Something. This Lent, Choose Vegan.”
Valuing their lives
PETA Director of International Programmes, Mimi Bekhechi, said: “Pigs, cows, sheep, and chickens are no different from human beings when it comes to feeling pain and fear and valuing their lives.
“PETA is encouraging everyone to show compassion to animals by skipping meaty meals and choosing humane and healthy vegan fare this Lent.”
What would Jesus do?
According to PETA: “Jesus would likely be appalled by today’s meat, egg, dairy, and fishing industries, in which animals are routinely abused and denied respect and compassion.
“The throats of chickens and turkeys are often slit while they’re still conscious, fish are cut open while they’re still alive or left to suffocate on the decks of fishing boats, and calves are taken away from their mothers within hours of birth so that the milk nature intended for them can be consumed by humans instead.
“As well as supporting the cruelty inherent in raising animals for food, the consumption of meat and other animal-derived foods has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, strokes, obesity, diabetes, and some forms of cancer.”
PETA offers a vegan Lent pledge – you canfind out more here
