Vegan Train Takeover in Sydney – Can You Relate to Who’s in This Crate?

A pig confined to a crate, hens crowded inside cages, cows languishing in filth, and sheep jammed onto transport trucks: these are the images that Sydneysiders were confronted with during today’s peak-hour commute as the city’s train troubles continued.

Every year in Australia, more than 500 million land animals endure miserable lives in the industrialised farming system before being killed for their flesh. Then, they’re strung upside down and their throats are slit, often while they’re still conscious.

Holding signs which read, “Peak-Hour Crowding 24/7”, “Can You Relate to Who’s in This Crate?” and “Imagine Never Being Able to Tap Off,” PETA protesters reminded commuters during their uncomfortable journey that hens used for eggs spend their whole lives confined to cages so small that they can’t even stretch their wings, mother pigs are imprisoned in farrowing crates so confining that they can’t even turn around, and sheep and cows are jammed into trucks and onto live-export ships and forced to endure long journeys in all weather extremes – and the end of the line is always the abattoir.

“An hour in a crowded train carriage is unpleasant, but imagine spending your entire life in a cage or crate, standing in your own waste and powerless to leave,” says PETA spokesperson Emily Rice. “We can easily spare animals the suffering caused by such extreme confinement by leaving meat, eggs, and dairy ‘products’ off our plates.”

It’s not hard to understand why this message is resonating with so many people today when you consider the powerful arguments for not eating meat. Doing so helps the environment, your health, and, most importantly, the millions of Australian animals who suffer in filthy, confined spaces with no opportunity to “tap off” from the deeply miserable situations they’re trapped in.

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