Students' In-Your-Face Poster Gives a New Face to Group's Vegan Campaign
For
Immediate Release:
July 27,
2012
Contact:
Kaitlynn
Kelly 202-483-7382
Lubbock, Texas -- PETA's newest pro-vegan ad campaign comes courtesy of four students in Texas Tech University's Public and Social Service Design class, who designed the provocative, eye-catching ad for a PETA-sponsored class competition. The winning ad shows an image of two pigs, one colored stark red, and states in bold block letters, "You're Eating Shit." The ad goes on to explain, "Slaughterhouses are so filthy that more than half of all meat is contaminated with fecal bacteria."
Although none of the four students, who hail from across the notoriously meaty state, had ever tried going vegan prior to the contest, all four were moved to re-examine their eating habits after learning about the cruelty to animals, the health risks, and the environmental devastation inherent in the meat industry. All the students have begun to cut back on their meat consumption, including one student—Sharon Cadena, a native of Lytle, Texas—who has now been vegan for more than a month.
"All these students met PETA's challenge head-on and tackled the cruelty of the meat industry in strong, clever, and moving ways," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "The winning designers' ad does a great job of confronting viewers with the fact that slaughterhouses are cruel and filthy—and that every time you take a bite of meat, you're putting your health at risk."
Because slaughterhouse floors and fishing boats are often contaminated with feces, blood, and vomit, a great deal of meat is tainted with dangerous intestinal bacteria by the time it reaches the family dinner table. According to a Consumer Reports survey, fully two-thirds of super-market chicken meat is tainted with campylobacter or E. coli, and more than 70 percent of meat tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was contaminated with E. coli.
The students are available for interviews upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.