Chesham School’s Pig Programme Prompts PETA Plea: Don’t Make Children Eat Their Friends!
3 Oct 2024
Chesham School’s Pig Programme Prompts PETA Plea: Don’t Make Children Eat Their Friends!
Chesham, Buckinghamshire – After learning that Waterside Primary Academy acquired three pigs as part of a school project, PETA sent a letter (available here) to Head of School Jacqui Blackmore urging her to apply the project’s intended lesson on empathy for animals to the school’s canteen and remove pigs’ flesh from the menu. If the school agrees, PETA has offered to provide delicious vegan sausages and pig-free bacon to assist with the transition.
“Waterside’s young students would undoubtedly be horrified to learn that their lunchtime meal comes from pigs who are every bit as loving, playful, and intelligent as those they care for at school,” says PETA Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen. “PETA is urging Waterside Primary Academy to show respect for their pupils’ porcine pals by taking these wonderful animals off the menu.”
Pigs raised for their flesh are crammed by the thousands into concrete pens on filthy farms. The frustration and stress can drive them to engage in aggressive behaviour such as ear- and tail-biting, so farmers routinely cut off pigs’ tails and grind down their sensitive teeth, usually without painkillers. At the abattoir, they’re hoisted upside down and their throats are cut – often without effective stunning. In addition to the immense cruelty, the products of pig slaughter are also disastrous to human health: the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies processed meats like bacon and ham as Group 1 carcinogens alongside tobacco and asbestos.
Over 35,000 PETA supporters – including Sir Paul McCartney – have urged the government to remove the mandatory servings of meat and dairy from the School Food Standards for England and give caterers the freedom to serve children healthier, more sustainable meals. Each person who goes vegan spares hundreds of pigs and other animals every year a violent death and slashes their own risk of suffering from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and strokes. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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