Feeding Kids Meat 'Is Child Abuse'
But PETA's campaign is 'sensationalist nonsense' says meat industry
Easington in County Durham has an obesity rate 22% above the national average - and that's where PETA Europe has launched a national ad campaign warning parents that feeding their kids meat is tantamount to child abuse.
The ad is located on a bus shelter on Seaside Lane - right around the corner from Oak Road, the town's 'fattest' street.
On Radio Four's Farming Today programme this morning, the pressure group urged parents to stop feeding kids 'a diet which leads them down the path of misery, morbid obesity and playground mockery.'
Anita Singh from PETA said 'many well-meaning parents really don't know that meat contains dangerous toxins... The science is conclusive. These chemicals that are ingested by the animals which are exploited in factory farms today acumulate in the flesh and fat of these animals and we're passing these down to our children.'
PETA has been accused of running a campaign to scare parents, with their claims that meat is 'packed' with heavy metals and dioxins.
However, Anita Singh said research shows that vegetarians are 50% less likely to develop heart disease and 40% less likely to develop cancer than meat eaters, while vegans are nine times less likely to become obese than non-vegans.
Richard Lowe, Consumer Affairs Director from the Meat and Livestock Commission, dismissed the campaign as 'sensationalist nonsense'.
'It's never been conclusively proven that a meat-free diet makes you healthy. It tends to be that vegetarian families are also those familes who don't smoke, don't drink that much alcohol and take plenty of exercise... A healthy balanced diet is probably the healthiest way to live.'
This isn't the first time PETA has equated meat-eating with child abuse. In 2002, PETA's billboard campaign in Glasgow was condemned as 'malicious' by nutrition experts from Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities.
