News Releases

PETA MEMBERS IN BIOHAZARD SUITS TO BRING WARNING TO SEOUL: MEAT IS TOXIC

Avoid Pesticides, Antibiotics, and Swine Flu: Go Vegetarian, Says Group

For Immediate Release:

August 23, 2012

Seoul — Wearing yellow hazmat suits with gas masks and holding signs that read, "Meat Is Toxic. Go Vegetarian," members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia and Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE) will bring a vegetarian message to Seoul on Friday. Their point? That in addition to causing animal suffering on a massive scale and fouling the environment, meat contains a plethora of dangerous substances, including pesticides and antibiotics. It is also responsible for deadly outbreaks of swine flu and avian flu.

When:    Friday, August 24, 12 noon sharp

Where:  In front of Soon Shin Lee's statue in Kwanghwamoon, Seoul

"We've known for some time that eating meat is linked to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer, but intensive factory farming also threatens the health of meat-eaters by providing them with an unhealthy dose of dangerous drugs and the potential for deadly flu," says PETA Asia Vice President Jason Baker. "The best way to protect our health, animals, and the planet is to go vegetarian."

Animals on factory farms are fed a steady diet of drugs to keep them alive in these unsanitary, stressful conditions, which increases the chance that drug-resistant superbugs will develop. Hans-Gerhard Wagner, a senior officer with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, has called the intensive industrial farming of livestock an "opportunity for emerging disease."

Factory-farmed pigs often suffer from chronic flu, and factory-farmed animals in general are invariably stressed and disease-ridden as a result of being crammed by the thousands into filthy sheds, which are breeding grounds for new strains of dangerous bacteria and viruses. Pregnant sows are confined to narrow metal stalls barely larger than their own bodies, where they are unable to turn around or even lie down comfortably. Pigs' tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and male pigs are castrated—all without any painkillers.

For more information, please visit PETAAsiaPacific.com.

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