People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is appealing an Illinois Department of Transportation decision that banned it from posting roadside signs memorializing cows injured and killed in traffic accidents in 2011.
PETA applied to the fatal accident memorial marker program in late December to request recognition of the death of more than 20 cows. Two cattle-carrying tractor-trailers headed for slaughterhouses overturned in May and October, flipping the animals onto Illinois roads and resulting in their deaths.
In Illinois, memorial signs are built on request from surviving relatives of road fatalities. PETA’s request was denied because the applicants were not direct relatives of the cattle, transportation department spokesman Josh Kauffman told The Associated Press.
Ryan Huling, manager of college campaigns for PETA, said he hopes the lack of family members capable of applying for roadside memorials for cows will change the minds of department decision makers.
“We are urging the department to reconsider based on the fact that we are, of course, all animals, and cows suffer just as much as (humans) do,” Huling said. “We feel like submitting it as a next best friend is the best thing we can do.”
Huling said PETA received hundreds of phone calls from concerned citizens following the May tractor-trailer overturn in Cook County. In October, a second traffic accident killed six cows in Henry County.
The unprecedented signs would also memorialize dozens of other cattle deaths that occurred in 2011 during transport for slaughter, Huling said.
“Slaughterhouses are able to truck these animals across vast distances, and many times end up injuring them on their way to the slaughterhouses because people pay them to do it,” he said.
Leslie Patterson, a Chicago resident who handed out flyers Wednesday at The Arch on behalf of a different animal rights organization, said she approves of the proposed memorial signs.
“Memorializing victims of an accident, either animals or people, is an OK thing to do,” said Patterson, Mercy for Animals Chicago leafleting coordinator. “We do see roadside shrines for people killed in accidents, so why not have them for animals?”
Beyond the roadside memorial signs, Huling called for a fundamental shift in consumer food investments to prevent future animal traffic deaths.
“We have an obligation to make passionate decisions and boycott cruel industries that torture animals,” he said.
Marshall Cohen and Alexandria Johnson contributed reporting.
