Animal rights charity Peta is risking fresh controversy by replacing its anti-dairy campaign – which showed a woman seemingly covered in semen – with a poster showing someone who has eaten a dog.
Featuring a dog collar on a plate with the remains of a roast dinner, and the strapline: “If You Wouldn’t Eat Your Dog, Why Eat a Turkey?”, the charity is aiming to extend the season of peace and goodwill to animals by leaving them off the menu.
Peta maintains that turkeys are sensitive, intelligent individuals who are often playful and affectionate when they develop a relationship with a person. Before they end up on the table, fully conscious turkeys are slammed upside down into shackles and dragged through electrified stun baths.
The charity claims some birds are still conscious when their throats are slit and they are immersed in scalding-hot water to remove their feathers. More than 15 million turkeys are killed in the UK every year – more than 10 million for Christmas dinners alone.
“Britons love animals, and if they thought about how turkeys feel pain and fear just as dogs and cats do, they’d trade in their drumsticks for a veggie roast in a heartbeat”, says Peta director Mimi Bekhechi. “Families can make this a merry Christmas for all by serving humane, delicious vegan meals.”
Earlier this month, the charity sparked outrage by launching a poster campaign designed to highlight the dangers of dairy products under the strapline “some bodily fluids are bad for you”. The ad, which appeared to show a woman covered in sperm, was taken down within hours.
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