Group to Converge on Austin Headquarters During Celebration of Cruelly Obtained and Fat-Packed Product
For Immediate Release:
July 27, 2012
Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382
Austin, Texas -- Accompanied by an activist wearing a pig costume and holding signs that read, "Can the Spam: Go Vegetarian!" PETA members will protest outside the Austin headquarters of Hormel on Saturday while the company holds a celebration of the product's 75th anniversary. PETA's piggy's point? That the egregious abuses endured by intelligent, sensitive pigs on factory farms and during a terrifying slaughter—along with the artery-choking saturated fat and cholesterol in Spam—are no cause for celebration.
When: Saturday, July 28, 3 p.m.
Where: 1 Hormel Pl. (near the intersection of Hormel Place and 16th Avenue), Austin
"Celebrating Spam is celebrating suffering and death—for the pigs who are killed to make it and the consumers whose arteries can be ravaged by the cholesterol and fats in it," says PETA Associate Director of Campaigns Lindsay Rajt. "PETA suggests that Spam-eaters go vegan while there's still time and celebrate life instead."
Before pigs become Spam, their tails are chopped off, their teeth are clipped with pliers, and males are castrated—all without any pain relief. In an undercover investigation into a Hormel supplier’s farm in 2008, PETA captured video footage of vicious beatings and attacks on animals with weapons ranging from metal bars and clothespins to a cane and workers' fists. A supervisor was seen ramming a cane into a pig’s vagina and admitted to shoving a metal gate rod up pigs' anuses. Abuse and mistreatment of sows and piglets appear to be standard on factory farms, whether the pigs are destined for Hormel, Smithfield, or elsewhere. Also, Spam is loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol which has been linked to the cause of deadly diseases like diabetes and heart disease, so eating it can be like playing Russian roulette with your health. As part of the continuing campaign, PETA has T-shirts available that read, "Vegetarians Against Spam."
For more information, please visit PETA.org.