The harrowing images of more than 40 terrified cows running for their lives after escaping a slaughterhouse in Los Angeles, California, recently shocked the nation.
While most people watched with sadness and compassion, others struggled as their eyes were opened for the first time to the horrors associated with the profit-driven meat industry that slaughters millions of innocent farm animals for human consumption each year.
A powerful new billboard, honoring the 39 brave cows that were sadly returned to Manning Beef Slaughterhouse where they were killed for their meat, now stands in the city of Pico Rivera. The moving billboard, which asks for empathy, also pays tribute to the two cows that were saved and sent to Farm Sanctuary.
The messages to “Remember The Pico Rivera 41” and “Save Animals” are displayed prominently on the billboard, which is located on the corner of Beverly Blvd. and Di Maria Road, near the facility where between 1,500 to 2,000 cows are reportedly slaughtered each week.
“These cows and animals like them want to live like we do. The connection needs to be made that it is not ‘what’ people are eating, it is ‘who’ they are eating,” explained Ellen Dent, Co-Founder of Animal Alliance Network, the nonprofit organization that came up with the idea and secured the billboard. “After personally visiting the slaughterhouse many times while advocating for the cows to be saved, I knew that this was a pivotal moment in time that had the ability to inspire significant change.”
Several other animal welfare and vegan organizations agreed, including Peace 4 Animals and World Animal News, which helped design and sponsor the billboard that also features June B. Free, one of the surviving cows that escaped the slaughterhouse and now calls Farm Sanctuary home.
“Taking action to save the lives of animals is the most important thing that we can do to create change,” said Katie Cleary, Founder and President of Peace 4 Animals and World Animal News. “This billboard serves as a reminder that animals are sentient beings that should be treated with compassion and respect. With so many delicious plant-based food options now available, there is simply no justification for cows, or any other animals, to be senselessly slaughtered for their meat. It needs to stop, not only for the health of people and animals, but for the future of this beautiful planet we all share.”
Animal Save Movement, a worldwide group that holds vigils for farm animals outside of slaughterhouses and live markets, also helped support the billboard, as did Farm Sanctuary.
