Texas Tech Students Win PETA Contest

Texas Tech PETA ad. The small print at the top reads: Slaughterhouses are so filthy that more than half of all meat is contaminated with fecal bacteria

Congrats to four students at Texas Tech who recently won a PETA ad campaign. The ad, seen above, was completed as part of a Public and Social Service Design class. The ad is provocative, in the usual PETA style, without crossing the line into racism, sexism, sizism, or general deplorable insensitivity like many PETA ads. Well done, students!

The ad references the fact that the source of e.coli contamination in food is often animal manure in slaughter houses. This is the reason why meat must be cooked to certain safe temperatures and why ground meat–like hamburger meat–carries more contamination risk.

The students are not (yet) vegan themselves. I hope they check out the new animal rights group that’s forming at Texas Tech and learn more about how animals are treated in food production.

Veganizing UTA

UTA Vegan Club table at a recent health fair. Photo from the club's Facebook page.

I am continually impressed with the vegan club at the University of Texas at Arlington. So while I’m proud of their work on Resolution 11-19, I’m not at all surprised at it.

Resolution 11-19 asks for better labeling of ingredients and vegan options in the cafeteria and for more and more varied healthy vegan options. The National Restaurant Association estimates that about twenty percent of university students are vegetarian, and it’s likely that that figure is even higher at UTA because of the large number of international students from countries where vegetarianism is more common.

In working on this resolution, the vegan club sought opinions and support from other university organizations such as the Indian Students Organization, the Environmental Society, and several nursing groups. It’s just this kind of networking and energy that makes the group so successful.

Congrats to the Vegan Club on the passage of Resolution 11-19! The future of Texas looks bright.