For immediate release:
April 30, 2021
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
Inverness, California. – As the National Park Service (NPS) plans to promote livestock production on the Point Reyes National Coast – even though it means massive depletion of water resources and a death sentence for the Thule moose who call the area their home – PETA’s mobile billboard is coming tomorrow parked all day to urge NPS to suck up to the meat industry at the expense of wildlife and citizens’ water needs.
The NPS plan will allow livestock breeders to keep more than 5,500 cows on about 26,000 fenced acres of coastline for another 20 years, exacerbating dry conditions. On average, it takes 1,799 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of cow meat and 4.5 gallons of water to produce a gallon of cow’s milk, and animal husbandry contaminates water sources with manure, hormones and antibiotics. Water contamination from existing ranches in Point Reyes is clearly a problem, with recently tested bacteria levels 300 times the state’s health standard.
“It is shameful, unbearable and unforgivable to kill wild animals to suck up to the interests of raising cattle,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. PETA urges National Park Service to protect Point Reyes, its water resources and the interests of its citizens, not the meat industry.
One herd of Thule elk is confined by the peninsula rancher’s fence, and the drought has dramatically reduced water and natural food supplies. Hundreds of moose reportedly died in 2020 because fences prevented them from looking for food and water elsewhere. Only two other herds of Thule moose remain at Point Reyes, and the NPS plan will allow some to be killed “according to the desired conditions for the planning area” – in other words, as the ranchers see fit.
The billboard will be parked in the Tule Elk Preserve parking lot at the end of Pier Point Ranch Road all day tomorrow (May 1).
PETA, whose motto is in part that “the animals are not ours to eat,” opposes specisism, which is a worldview focused on human excellence. For more information please visit PETA.org or subscribe to the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram…