Two years ago, Joey Chestnut was put in a headlock by protesters, but still managed to eat 63 hot dogs and buns in a Nathan’s hot dog eating contest.
Chesnut will not attend this year’s event, which takes place on Thursday, but activists are planning to attend.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it would “bombard the pageant’s audience” with trucks urging participants to go vegan.
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Baldwin sent a letter on behalf of the animal rights group PETA to the CEO of Madison Square Garden Entertainment Group. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
The group says it’s a “life-size, hyper-realistic pig transport truck” decorated with images of caged pigs being sent to a slaughterhouse. The truck is called “Hell on Wheels.”
“Behind every hot dog is a once-living, delicate human being who was crammed into a truck and forced to make a horrific, harrowing journey to death,” PETA vice president Tracy Lyman said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “PETA’s Hell on Wheels truck is a reminder to everyone who eats pigs, cows, and other animals that the meat industry is cruel to animals, and that the only kind diet is a vegan one.”
PETA will be using the truck for a hot dog eating contest on Thursday. (PETA)
Joey Chestnut to compete in 4th of July hot dog eating contest
The track will be set up outside the competition venue at 11am ET, one hour before the start of competition.
The group has also slammed the “shameful” National Dog Shot and sports teams’ use of live mascots, most recently the Cleveland Browns, after their mascot, a bullmastiff named Swagger Jr., died at age 5.
Chestnut was barred from this year’s tournament for teaming up with a rival of Nathan’s, and Major League Eating said it would lift the ban once the partnership ended, but that never happened.
FILE – Joey Chestnut, winner of the 2021 Nathan’s Independence Day International Hot Dog Eating Contest, poses for a photo at Maimonides Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, on July 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Brittany Newman, File)
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This will therefore mark the first time since 2015 that someone other than Joey Chestnut will be the champion, and just the second time since 2007. Chestnut lost the title to Matt Stone in 2015.
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