Wellington County won’t be allowing an animal rights organization to erect what one local official called a “cenotaph” for dead turkeys at a major intersection in this village.
In support of a member group in the area, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) requested permission to place, for one month, a three-metre high granite memorial at the corner of Wellington Road 124 and Main Street in Erin, where about 400 turkeys were killed when a transport truck tipped over on Oct. 19.
The group proposed the stone be engraved with the words, “In memory of the hundreds of terrified turkeys who died here in a truck crash Oct. 19, 2014. Go Vegan.”
The request was referred by Erin officials to the county.
County operations manager Paul Johnson said senior staff and politicians discussed the request last week, but it never made it to the roads committee, which was not meeting due to election activity.
“We’ve never handled a request quite like that. We’ve had the typical requests for a person that’s deceased, not an animal or pet,” said Johnston, noting such requests are “usually quite benign,” consisting of a flower, cross or wreath well off the travelled portion of a roadway.
“In the case of this one, I can’t believe that they would want to create a 10-foot granite monument – place it here for a month – the cost of it would be astronomical and it would be for one-time use,” said Johnson.
He noted a crane would be required to place and later remove the monument.
Johnson said the county couldn’t allow the structure.
“The precedent that would be set for that, if we’re allowing that for turkeys – and I can understand PETA’s point of view – but the number of dogs or cats that end up getting killed on the side of the road … If we’re allowing that for turkeys … then what would we allow for a monument for deceased individuals?”
Johnson felt the logistics involved in the request makes it likely it was primarily a publicity stunt.
“I’m not sure it’s legit. It’s so over the top,” he said. “According to their literature they’ve never been successful in getting one of these placed and I don’t know if they were just trying to do what they actually accomplished – and that’s get press,” he said.
“To put up, for all intents and purposes, a cenotaph, knowing that nobody was going to approve it based on that size – it maybe wasn’t their intent in the first place to do it.”
After the Oct. 19 crash, Wellington County Large Animal Rescue (WCLAR) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency attended the site to dispose of the dead turkeys and euthanize injured birds.
On Oct. 30, WCLAR representative Wendy Swackhamer issued the following statement: “Wellington County Large Animal Emergency Rescue is not involved in the politics of these things, I focus more on the immediate issue which is trying to help the animals in an emergency when it happens.
“Everyone involved is saddened by the accident, and at the loss of life that look place. Everyone agrees that animals shouldn’t suffer, which is why any birds who were found still alive and suffering were immediately euthanized, humanely.”
Swackhamer said her organization is “making every attempt to further educate livestock transport companies by working with them to improve policies and emergency procedures.”
