A DUP MLA has hit out at what she has described as a "disgusting" poster which was erected in a Co Tyrone town in recent days.
The poster, which appeared in Dungannon, contains the image of a dead chicken and the words "bird flu" written in a blood-style font with the message "the writing is on the wall. Go vegan."
Over the weekend, it was reported that almost 16,000 birds will be culled at a site near Pomeroy and last week almost 64,000 birds had to be culled at a commercial poultry farm near Dungannon.
Responding to the poster, DUP Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Deborah Erskine said: "This insensitive and disgusting banner at a bus stop has been erected in Dungannon. There are poultry farmers who have literally lost their entire livelihoods overnight as a result of bird flu.
"If PETA cared so much about animals, they would be devastated, like the farmers, at the fact that thousands of birds had to be culled in the last number of weeks. But they don’t. All they care about is crass marketing.
"Poultry farmers are vital. They contribute £600million to the economy. Can PETA evidence what financial contribution they make to the local economy?
"I am calling on PETA to stop this campaign of victimisation on our poultry farmers at a time of deep concern for them and I will be asking Translink to review this advertising campaign. I stand with our farmers."
Responding to Ms Erskine's comments, Dawn Carr, Vice President of Vegan Corporate Projects at PETA said that the links between meat and major causes of human disease are known.
"Let’s not pretend that these sensitive birds were set for a comfortable retirement instead of a ghastly death, hanging upside down in an abattoir," she said.
"As with tobacco farmers, it’s time to see how society is changing, and those who confine birds to a life of misery, transport them in all weathers, and scare them half to death before killing them should explore another way to make a living.
"If the warning signs of avian flu, the price of eggs and the suffering of birds as precious as anyone’s budgie don’t move them in a world where meat’s link to the major causes of human disease are now known, what will? We encourage farmers to grow plants and leave behind the heartbreak and violence of raising animals for food – for everyone’s sake."
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English (United States) ·