BRIDGEVILLE, Del. -- Preparations are underway for Bridgeville's biggest event of the year: Apple Scrapple. However, animal advocates have taken issue with a festival favorite dish and they're using public transportation to get their message across.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) plastered ten local DART buses with a message that reads, "I'm Someone, Not Scrapple. Go Vegan." along with a picture of a pig, ahead of the 30th annual Bridgeville Apple Scrapple Festival beginning on Oct. 14th.
"People can enjoy plant based versions of these foods," Courtney Penley, a PETA spokesperson, tells WBOC. "So, we are asking people to stop using tradition as a justification for animal abuse and murder."
People living in Bridgeville are excited for the big event and say that they respect PETA's right to speak out.
"Everyone is entitled to their opinion and to have their free speech, and to put it out there and what not," says Jeré Hutson, who has been going to the festival for years now. "I don't consider myself a vegetarian or anything like that, and also, personal view, I feel like God put animals on this earth for us to partake in so I'm going by that."
Festival organizers expressed the same acceptance of PETA's right to voice their opinion, and despite the animal advocates' plea to scrap scrapple from the event, organizers made one thing clear:
"Our festival will go on and it will continue to embrace scrapple," says Karen Johnson, executive director of the Apple Scrapple Festival.
The festival is free to the public and will include a carnival and vendors, in addition to scrapple and other food choices.