Brixton buses carry vegan message

Animal rights campaign PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is using buses travelling through Brixton and what it describes as “Chicken Valley” to urge us to go vegan.

As they run through Croydon, Streatham and Brixton, the buses carry PETA adverts featuring a chick imploring humans to spare her life.

PETA says this “Chicken Valley” route “is overrun with fried chicken vendors, including Morley’s, Wingstop, Popeyes, and Chicken Cottage”.

PETA vice president of corporate projects Dawn Carr said: “Every chicken takeaway represents the grim existence and violent death for a gentle bird who was killed at just six weeks old.”

She urged Londoners to let birds live “and choose a delicious vegan chicken meal instead”.

PETA said chickens can recognise the faces of more than 100 other chickens; communicate with at least 30 unique vocalisations; establish complex social hierarchies; and roost together companionably.

“Yet those killed for their flesh are crammed into filthy sheds, bred to be supersized, and forced to live in their own waste – and the run-off from these operations pollutes the environment and poisons local wildlife,” said the campaign

“At abattoirs, chickens’ throats are often cut while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in de-feathering tanks.”

PETA said that, with supporters, it had successfully urged KFC to offer a tasty vegan chicken option, and other chicken chains, like Chicken Shop and Slim Chickens, have followed.

The animal protection group is calling on more vendors to spare birds and meet the demand for tasty, animal-friendly food on the go.

PETA also displayed a vegan billboard, reading “I Want You To Change” above a Roosters Spot chicken shop on the South Lambeth Road.

PETA said each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year, dramatically shrinks their carbon footprint, and reduces their own risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and obesity.

It says its free vegan starter kit can help anyone looking to make the switch.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” –says that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free empathy kits.

For more information, visit peta.org.uk or follow PETA on Facebook, X,TikTok, or Instagram.