As the World Pork Expo brings thousands of visitors to central Iowa, a group that opposes the concept will also pull into town.
Mike Brazell, the Vegan coordinator with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says his group’s counter-protest will involve a demonstrator — “Cowboy Bob” — lying down on a giant mock grill to show people that “meat is murder.” Brazell says people will realize how all corpses are animals, and “we all feel pain in the same way…Pigs are very interesting animals and they feel pain when they become, y’know, a piece of flesh on someone’s plate.”
The group’s promising a free lunch to anyone interested in their no-meat philosophy. They’ll offer vegetarian riblets from a company called Garden Burger, which he says were produced “with no animal cruelty involved.” They’ll be in downtown Des Moines over the noon-hour also handing out their leaflets. “We’re going to have free vegetarian starter kits,” says Brazell.