PETA TO ‘BARBECUE’ A HUMAN IN RUN-UP TO AUSTRALIA DAY

Group Wants to Show That No One’s Body Belongs on the Barbie

For Immediate Release:
23 January 2013

Sydney – Hoping to inspire residents to realise that a corpse is a corpse – whether fish, fowl, sheep, cow or human – members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Australia will “cook” a nearly naked activist on a barbecue in Sydney on Thursday, just two days before smoke from Australia Day barbecues fills the air. A banner will read, “Bodies Don’t Belong on the Barbie. Go Vegan”. PETA’s point? That all animals are made of flesh, bone and blood, just as humans are, and that eating meat entails ingesting the corpse of an animal who had feelings, a family, a distinct personality and a will to live.

When:       Thursday, 24 January, 12 noon
Where:      Martin Place, on the corner of Elizabeth and Phillip Streets, Sydney

“We are challenging our fellow Australians to think about what meat really is”, says PETA Australia’s Jason Baker. “Flesh is flesh, and animals feel pain and suffer just as humans do. What revolts people about the idea of eating another human should also apply to the idea of eating any other animal.”

Chickens, fish, cows, sheep and pigs feel pain and fear just as intensely as do the animals who share our homes with us, yet they are abused in ways that would be illegal if dogs and cats were the victims. On today’s factory farms, chickens have their throats cut while they’re still conscious, piglets are castrated and have their tails cut off without being given painkillers and cows are hung upside down and often skinned while they’re still able to feel pain. On the decks of fishing boats, fish suffocate or are cut open while they’re still alive.

Australians can do themselves a favour, too, by laying off animal flesh. According to the US-based Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, vegetarians and vegans are less prone to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity than meat-eaters are. Also, raising animals for food is a leading cause of water consumption and pollution, land degradation and the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.au.

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