It was hard to miss — with loud animal cries and real images of turkeys in cages on their way to slaughter.
“Some of these turkeys, you look into their eyes and you see how sad they are like this one, especially this guy right there,” said Jeff Kimbrough, a Goleta resident.
Kimbrough has never considered skipping eating turkey on Thanksgiving, until he learned about the suffering they go through.
“They got like four or five of them in a little cage just bundled up against these guys and just pressed up against the side of the cage. Look at that one. But yeah, it’s it’s pretty sad,” said Kimbrough.
But he says he’ll probably still eat the big bird this year and try for next year as he learns about more vegan turkey alternatives.
The truck made multiple stops outside of Santa Barbara grocery stores disrupting some, but inspiring others.
“Playing animal sounds probably will not deter most people from purchasing turkey for Thanksgiving,” said Anthony Lopez, who lives in Santa Barbara.
“It definitely tugs at the heartstrings, so It might get people to just think twice about eating turkey or eating meat,” said Cassy Brezner, who lives in Oxnard.
Police were called to La Cumbre Plaza after someone at Bristol Farms complained that the truck was disturbing the peace and trespassing on private parking property.
“I’m definitely all for peaceful protest, but at the same time there are laws that need to be followed,” said Brezner.
The truck then moved to two other supermarket locations with public parking.
“When consumers come face to face with this reality and hear what happens to them [the turkeys], how they’re shipped from these dark, overcrowded, poorly ventilated warehouses on cramped slaughter trucks like this to the slaughterhouse, have their throats slit just days later, they realize that there’s a more compassionate choice they can make to avoid eating animals and eat vegan instead,” said PETA Lead Tour Administrator, Marnie Chambless.
PETA says every year 46 million turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving.
They are touring across 30 states to get more people to go vegan.
