PETA protesters take to Columbus Junction to protest Tyson Foods

COLUMBUS JUNCTION - Matt Tao has been a vegan for 10 years and participated in his fifth PETA protest on Thursday. After learning more than two dozen Tyson Foods workers tested positive for COVID-19 he decided to take a stand.

'After this outbreak it really hit home for me because it's not just affecting my life where I have to wear gloves and masks, but I worry about my dad getting sick and dying,” he said.

Monday, Tyson Foods Inc. announced it would cease operations at the Columbus Junction plant after more than two-dozen employees tested positive for the coronavirus.

'In an effort to minimize the impact on our overall production, we're diverting the livestock supply originally scheduled for delivery to Columbus Junction to some of our other pork plants in the region,” a release from the company stated.

In response, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) staged a protest on Walnut and Main Streets in town. The purpose behind the protest was to persuade Tyson Foods to switch to making vegan pork once the factory resumes business.

'By providing breeding grounds for swine flu, SARS, avian flu, and other diseases, filthy slaughterhouses and meat markets threaten the health of every human on the planet,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a statement. 'PETA suggests that Tyson stay closed unless it can reinvent itself as a producer of healthy and 100% humane vegan pork.”

Tao cited a CDC (Center for Disease Control) article on that states every three of four infectious diseases come from animals to humans. He believes given the history of viruses that come from animals, if companies stop producing meat products the chance for outbreaks would diminish.

'We just need to create a space between animals and humans and respect that space so things like this don't happen,” he said.

Although only a small group of three were present on Thursday afternoon, Tao said the goal was to make a big impact on something that has made a global impact.

'We're basically here just to raise awareness that if Tyson retrained their employees to make vegan pork products they would avoid pandemics like this from happening in the first place. Plus, they wouldn't be in these germ infested slaughterhouses so likely the chance of them getting an outbreak there would not have happened,” he said.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, there is currently no evidence of food or food packaging being associated with transmission of COVID-19.

The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person according to the CDC, though it may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that hass the virus on it and then touching their mouth, nose and possibly eyes, the FDA's website states.