Arrest of Mother on Suspicion of Cooking Her Infant Daughter Prompts Billboard Urging People to Protect All Babies, Not Cook Them
For Immediate Release:
June 23, 2011
Contact:
Kristin Richards 202-483-7382
Sacramento, Calif. — In the wake of Tuesday's arrest of a Sacramento woman for allegedly microwaving her infant daughter, PETA is negotiating with Sacramento outdoor advertisers to place a billboard in the city that features the image of a person who is about to pop a pork chop into the microwave next to a picture of a loving mother pig and reads, "Everybody's Somebody's Baby. Go Vegan." The billboard serves to remind people that the vast majority of animals killed for human consumption are just babies who have yet to see their first birthday.
PETA's founder, Ingrid E. Newkirk, went vegetarian after rescuing a baby pig during a farm cruelty case. The image of the mother and baby pig is the cover art for a book that she wrote titled The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights, which talks about PETA's philosophy and includes hundreds of simple ways to help stop animal suffering.
"We're horrified at the thought of microwaving a helpless baby and hope that this billboard will open hearts and minds to the grief of other mothers who have their babies torn away from them simply to satisfy humans' fleeting taste sensations," says Newkirk. "All infants, not just our own, deserve protection, and pigs, like cows and other animals, mourn the loss of their young when they are taken away to be eaten."
Because of profit-driven practices on today's industrialized factory farms, such as feeding animals growth-promoting drugs and selectively breeding them so that they'll grow fatter faster, pigs and turkeys are typically just 6 months old when they are killed and chickens are just 7 weeks old. Calves raised for veal are often taken away from their mothers within hours of birth and spend up to 16 weeks confined to cramped veal crates before being sent to slaughter.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.