PETA's Billboard Placement Elicits Response From Publican Quality Meats

This past Friday, a billboard advertisement for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) was placed across the street from One Off Hospitality's The Publican and Publican Quality Meats. The billboard, a picture of which is to the right, shows a piglet with the phrase, "You can live without those ribs. I can't. Try Vegan."

Publican Quality Meats has posted a measured, thoughtful response on their Facebook page, including a dialogue between Cosmo Goss, executive sous chef at The Publican as well as head butcher at Publican Quality Meats, and PQM's assistant manager, Darin Latimer, about One Off's own ethical treatment of animals.

The statement goes to great lengths to underline that they deal with farms and suppliers that treat their animals well (natural diets, not fed antibiotics or steroids, free range). Goss and Latimer discuss a recent staff trip to a farm where they were able to see how the operation works, including the humane slaughtering of animals. Goss explains how painless and caring the procedure is ("It's about making it as quick and painless as possible," he says), especially when compared to corporate farming.

Goss emphasizes that they use 100 percent of every animal they get in. "If you go to the freezer at PQM and buy some of our packaged Publican hamburger patties...those are from ONE COW. If you get a burger at McDonald's there is meat from over 1000 cows in it. Dramatize that in your head," Goss says. They also point out that, without restaurants such as theirs, heritage breeds would become extinct even faster than they are now.

According to a representative of One Off Hospitality, PETA did not contact them in advance of, nor after, the billboard's placement.
· Publican Defends Itself after PETA Puts up Billboard Across the Street [DNAinfo]
· We Eat Meat: Notes on Humanely Raised, Etchically Slaughtered Heritage Breed Animals [PQM Facebook]
· All Publican Quality Meats Coverage [~ECHI~]
[Photo credit: Publican Quality Meats]