A new billboard on Wellington's Cuba Street is encouraging people to try a 22-day vegan challenge.
The billboard, funded by contributions from animal rights activist groups all over New Zealand, directs people to a website where they are encouraged to go vegan for 22 days and see how they find it.
Emblazoned on the six-metre by three-metre billboard is a slogan - "If you think it's wrong to hurt animals, you already believe in being vegan" - and a picture of a factory-farmed pig.
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Wellington Vegans, the activist group behind the billboard, says it just wants people to consider whether being vegan lines up with their current beliefs.
"Most people, if they find sick or injured animals, will try and save them," says project manager Lauren Wickens-Smith.
"We just don't think about the animals that are suffering and dying for our food. Or maybe we don't realise that by paying for it to happen, we are responsible.
Billboard designer Atom Emet says most people already know it's wrong to exploit animals, and know that we don't need to.
"Ideologically at least, most people are already on-board with being vegan."
But the billboard isn't aiming to change people's beliefs, says Ms Wickens-Smith.
"We're simply asking people to align their actions with the values of kindness and compassion that they already hold. It's just about making that connection, and having the strength of conviction to follow through with it."
The billboard will be in place on Cuba Street for five weeks, and will then be re-used in other locations around Wellington and the rest of New Zealand.
The activist group also plans to produce more billboards with varied designs to focus on the ethical and environmental impacts of animal agriculture.
Newshub.
