Allow Highway Memorials for Cattle to Raise Awareness

Animal Welfare, Petitions — By Christopher Baranowski on January 24, 2012 6:24 am

Target: Illinois Department of Transportation

Goal: Allow PETA to install memorials to cattle on highway to raise awareness about animal deaths resulting from highway accidents

PETA is in the process of appealing a decision by the Illinois Department of the Transportation (IDOT) that states that PETA could not install memorials on Routes 37 and 294 to cattle killed in two separate wrecks while en route to a slaughterhouse.  The IDOT insists that the law only allows relatives of loved ones who were killed to request memorials, while PETA is claiming that the cows suffered greatly and deserve to be remembered.  Though this may seem like a trivial issue, allowing the memorials to stand would raise awareness about animals killed during transportation.  Tell the IDOT to install memorials for the cattle and raise awareness about this issue.

In 2006, a group called the Farm Sanctuary found that over a six-year period, there were 233 accidents in which over 27,000 animals were killed during transportation.  Right now, neither the state of Illinois nor the government tracks the numbers of accidents involving animal fatalities.  PETA has sought to raise awareness by pushing for highway roadside memorials to honor the animals who often die slow and painful deaths.  The group submitted two applications for memorials in Virginia after 200 pigs were killed in a motor vehicle accident there but both were denied.  The applications in Illinois seek to remember the 16 cattle killed on May 22 when a driver lost control of his truck, one of which had to be shot by police to stop its suffering, and 6 cattle killed on Oct. 14th near Cambridge, Ill.  Despite the fact the PETA has offered to fund the memorials, the IDOT denied their applications because the law states that only a “qualified relative” can request a state-issued memorial.  These animals don’t have any relatives to speak up for them so PETA has done it for them.

The fact that neither the state or federal government keeps track of animal fatalities is a blatant sign that animal safety during transportation is an overlooked and understudied issue.  By allowing the memorials to stand, the IDOT will take a stance that says “animal suffering matters too.”  Hopefully, this will set off a more comprehensive discourse on animal safety during transportation.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Ann L. Schneider, Head of the Illinois Department of Transportation,

We ask that you please reconsider your recent denial of PETA’s application to install roadside memorials for cattle that were killed in motor vehicle accidents on highways in Illinois last year.  Though it may seem trivial, the issue of animal fatalities during transportation is one that is very understudied and misunderstood.  Neither the state of Illinois nor the federal government has any sort of system to monitor how many animals are killed during transportation, but a group did do a study that claimed to find over 27,000 animal deaths over a six year period during transportation.

Animals that die in accidents usually experience slow and painful deaths, often being trapped for hours at a time.  Some become badly injured and must be killed to end their suffering, which was the fate of one of the 16 cattle killed on May 22 on Highway 294.  Animal suffering should be taken just as seriously as human suffering and if these memorials are installed, they could raise awareness about the thousands of faceless and voiceless animals that are killed while being transported each year.  This could bring a renewed focus on the issue and hopefully create some way of tracking how many animals are dying and what could be done better.  Please allow PETA’s memorials to go up.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Will Go Here]