At noon today (Thursday, June 27 at noon), PETA will be barbecuing a “dog” at the corner of Elmwood and Cleveland Avenues. The barbecue is intended to get people to rethink eating animals such as pigs by stating – if you’re not going to eat a dog, then what is so different about eating a pig? For some reason, dogs have become domestic pets, while pigs (and other animals) have become menu items.

The demonstration asks people to go easy on the animals, and consider eating more vegetables, corn on the cob, potato salad, greens, and anything else that is not meat based. Or at least consider minimizing your intake of meat products, not only for the sake of the animals, but for one’s health, and the health of the planet.

This grilling event takes place just before the Fourth of July, one of the biggest grilling days of the year.

Speciesism—a human-supremacist worldview.

“When it comes to feeling pain and fear, a pig is no different from a dog, a cat, or a human,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is urging anyone who’s disturbed by the prospect of chowing down on a chow chow to extend that compassion to all other animals and go vegan.”

If you are going to be eating animals, such as pigs, be sure that you are sourcing them from responsible farmers, and not from slaughterhouses that demonstrate inhumane practices.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that because of speciesism, pigs are routinely abused in ways that would be illegal if the victims were dogs or cats. In today’s pork industry, pigs’ tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and males are castrated—all without any pain relief. At the slaughterhouse, they’re hung upside down, often while still conscious, and bled to death.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

Lead image: Photo by Arthur Savary