The founder of animal rights organization PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is celebrating her 75th birthday with a bold statement.
On Tuesday, Ingrid Newkirk will be driving through Chicago, once home to America's largest stockyards, in PETA's life-size pig transport truck covered with images of real pigs crammed into crates on their way to slaughter. The truck is known as "Hell on Wheels."
"Chicago was once dubbed 'the hog butcher for the world,' but times have changed, as more people come to see pigs and all other animals as the thinking, feeling individuals they are," Newkirk said in a statement. "While the old stockyards are long gone, PETA is still going strong and encouraging Chicagoans and people everywhere else to leave animals off their plates."
PETA said the truck will make a special stop outside The Wiener's Circle, an iconic hotdog stand on the north side of Chicago, where it will blast actual recorded sounds of the animals' panicked screams.
"But the 'wurst' is yet to come for the city's meat-centric eateries, as Newkirk will cap off the afternoon by giving away delicious vegan Chicago-style hot dogs from Portillo's along the Magnificent Mile," the organization said.
PETA said the drive-by campaign confronts passersby with images of pigs bound for slaughter and the sound of their panicked screams as a harrowing reminder that these sensitive animals suffer horrifically when the meat industry raises and kills them for their flesh.
"At slaughterhouses, workers shoot pigs in the head with a captive-bolt gun, hang them up by one leg, and cut their throat -- often while they're still conscious," the organization said. "Each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year; reduces their own risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and obesity; and dramatically shrinks their carbon footprint."