Time to eschew meat
Announcement posted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Australia 04 May 2020
The Editor,
Dear Editor,
The outbreak of COVID-19 at a Melbourne slaughterhouse shows the urgency of dumping the meat habit.
Slaughterhouses not only put workers and the public health at risk but also cause the agonising, bloody deaths of hundreds of millions of animals every year. Factory farms and slaughterhouses are as filthy as China's "wet markets," their floors covered with blood, urine, faeces, and offal.
The novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese wet market where live and dead animals were sold for human consumption, swine flu began on a U.S. factory farm, and other influenza viruses have been traced to chickens. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that approximately 75% of recently emerged infectious diseases affecting humans originated in other animals.
Closing slaughterhouses doesn't mean a food shortage, because no one needs meat. Consuming it is linked to heart disease, cancer, strokes, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity.
The only thing at risk when slaughterhouses close is the meat industry's bottom line. PETA’s free starter kits and recipes are available on our website, to aid people in preventing the next pandemic by going vegan.
Mimi Bekhechi
Campaigns Strategist
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
PO Box 20308 World Square
Sydney, NSW, 2002
(08) 8556-5828
Dear Editor,
The outbreak of COVID-19 at a Melbourne slaughterhouse shows the urgency of dumping the meat habit.
Slaughterhouses not only put workers and the public health at risk but also cause the agonising, bloody deaths of hundreds of millions of animals every year. Factory farms and slaughterhouses are as filthy as China's "wet markets," their floors covered with blood, urine, faeces, and offal.
The novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese wet market where live and dead animals were sold for human consumption, swine flu began on a U.S. factory farm, and other influenza viruses have been traced to chickens. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that approximately 75% of recently emerged infectious diseases affecting humans originated in other animals.
Closing slaughterhouses doesn't mean a food shortage, because no one needs meat. Consuming it is linked to heart disease, cancer, strokes, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity.
The only thing at risk when slaughterhouses close is the meat industry's bottom line. PETA’s free starter kits and recipes are available on our website, to aid people in preventing the next pandemic by going vegan.
Mimi Bekhechi
Campaigns Strategist
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
PO Box 20308 World Square
Sydney, NSW, 2002
(08) 8556-5828