A new PETA-sponsored billboard is asking Utah students, If you wouldn't eat your dog, why eat a turkey?

Kids love animals, and if they thought about how turkeys feel pain and fear just as dogs and cats do, they'd trade in their drumsticks for tofurkey in a heartbeat, said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. This Thanksgiving, families can give all animals something to be thankful for by sticking to humane, delicious vegan meals.

PETA hopes the ads, running in seven states, will convince kids to refuse meat. The states are Florida, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee and Utah.

“Stuffing kids (or anyone) with turkey is also bad for their health: In addition to artery-clogging fat and cholesterol, they also could be gobbling up arsenic, which is used to combat disease on filthy factory farms,” PETA said in a statement.

Cruelty to turkeys is a year-round problem, so we will keep this going for as long as there is funding. It is especially present around Thanksgiving, however, spokeswoman Paige Snyder said.

According to PETA, more than 40 million turkeys are killed in the U.S. every year for Thanksgiving dinners.

PETA hopes the billboards will encourage dialogue between parents and children during the holiday season. It's important to start a tradition of respecting the life of animals, Snyder said. A lot of times people are used to parents teaching children everything. Once in a while, kids can teach parents too.

If kids knew what these animals go through, I think they would realize that they're really the same as their dog or cat, she said. They would care that it happens at all, rather than what type of animal it happens to.

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