A pair of activists took off everything but their underwear and wrapped themselves in giant cellophane packaging outside Quality Meat Packers Tuesday to draw attention to what they say is the inhumane treatment of the animals we eat.
The two women, who were smeared with red paint and encased in plastic wrap to look like packaged meat, were joined by about twenty supporters of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
“This is a shocking image to remind people that whether it’s a person, chicken, cow, or pig, flesh is flesh,” said PETA spokesperson Emily Lavender. “Chickens and turkeys have their throats slit while they’re still fully conscious, and they’re scalded alive. Pigs have their teeth, tails, and testicles removed without painkillers, and cows are often skinned alive at the slaughterhouse.”
As the voice of Paul McCartney narrating a PETA documentary played out of a speaker, a gaggle of photographers took pictures, predictably focusing mainly on the models depicting “human meat.”
Although most of the media there seemed more interested in capturing the nudity than the nuance of PETA’s message (I heard a Sun photographer wondering aloud if he could recruit one of the activists to be a Sunshine Girl), Lavender believes treating the pair of women like meat was a necessary evil.
“Sometimes if you don’t get the attention, then you don’t get the message across,” she said. “First we have to get the attention of people to let them know what’s going on before animals end up on your plate.”
