Vegas are urging farmers in some zones North Carolina hit by Hurricane Florence to open their barn doors and free their animals instead of letting them be trapped in the flooding.
Hurricane Florence has already caused the death of thousands of animals and PETA has called on farmers to be “merciful and open the barn doors.”
In the letter, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that in addition to the threat of drowning, pigs and other animals left behind in the floods face potentially suffocating to death if the power fails and the ammonia and hydrogen sulfide generated by their manure can’t be ventilated.
“These animals should have been evacuated long before Florence made landfall, but meat producers could still have given them a fighting chance if they’d simply let them out,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling for the barn doors to be opened in the event that the animals inside will certainly perish and for everyone to take personal responsibility for these pigs’ plight by keeping animals off their plates.”
PETA said stable doors were thrown open nine months ago in Southern California and hundreds of horses in San Diego managed to escape the flames.
The numbers of animals killed as a result of Florence’s flooding are expected to increase.
PETA said during Hurricane Matthew two years ago, 2,800 pigs and nearly 2 million birds died. Hurricane Floyd also killed millions of animals in 1999. Some bodies were washed into the ocean, and others were burned to prevent the spread of disease.
Drowning isn’t the only threat that pigs face: If power is lost and barns can’t be ventilated, they can suffocate from the ammonia and hydrogen sulfide generated by their manure.
Trapped animals should’ve at least been given a fighting chance to flee before Florence made landfall and the floodwaters started rising.
