07.08.2024
Sydney – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) activists wearing gas masks, “chicken tails”, and yellow string bikinis descended on Pitt Street Mall today to call on people to stop eating chicken. Holding signs reading, “Bird Flu Kills” and “Please, Go Vegan”, the flock aimed to remind consumers that eating the flesh and eggs of chickens and other birds funds factory farms, which are breeding grounds for zoonotic diseases such as the avian flu that’s currently tearing through Australian farms.
Photos and videos from the action are available here
“Chickens are clever, curious individuals with distinct personalities,” says PETA Campaigns Advisor Mimi Bekhechi. “Sadly, around 90% of the 650 million birds raised for meat in Australia come from factory farms. These hellholes – which are dark and damp, full of faeces and urine, and severely crowded – are breeding grounds for pathogens as well as the pandemic that took human lives.”
According to CSIRO, three strains of bird flu – H7N3, H7N9, and H7N8 – have been detected on poultry farms in Australia. In 2012, 2013, and 2020, previous bird flu outbreaks on farms in the country resulted in the mass killing of millions of birds. During the current outbreak alone, 1.8 million birds on farms in Australia have been killed in an attempt to limit the number of infections. Meanwhile overseas, H5N1 has infected birds and cows on farms as well as domestic cats.
Last month, PETA erected billboards across Melbourne warning residents that “the writing is on the wall” when it comes to bid flu and reminding everyone that much of the power to stop its spread is in their hands. By choosing vegan foods, humans can prevent animals from being confined to filthy factory farms, where they’re at risk for deadly diseases.
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.au or follow the group on Facebook and Instagram.
Contact
Sascha Camilli Media@peta.org.au
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