A new anti-meat billboard, supported by members of the local group Central Coast Vegetarian Network and backed by Mercy For Animals, is giving San Luis Obispo, California drivers some serious food for thought. The provocative ad, located on US 101, facing north about 1 mile from Monterey St., features an adorable puppy and a lovable piglet sitting side-by-side and asks, “Why love one but eat the other?” Motorists are encouraged to “Choose Vegetarian” and visit CCVegNet.com for additional information.
The campaign aims to spark debate over why we call some animals pets, and others dinner.
Far from receiving the kindness and respect afforded to most dogs and cats, the billions of cows, pigs, and chickens raised and killed for meat in America lead lives filled with misery. The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today’s factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy, windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates and other cruel confinement systems. These animals will never root in the soil, build nests or do anything that is natural to them. They won’t even feel the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.
Animals on factory farms have little to no legal protection. Cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats, such as neglect, mutilation, transport through all weather extremes, and gruesome and violent slaughter, is commonplace in animal agribusiness. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companion
MFA has run similar pro-vegetarian billboard and transit ad campaigns nationwide. To make a tax-deductible donation to support future ads, click here.
