PETA Seeks Memorials to Cows Killed on Illinois Roads

CHICAGO (AP) — An animal rights group wants Illinois to install highway signs in memory of cattle killed when trucks hauling them flipped in two separate wrecks.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked for permission to buy the markers, one in suburban Chicago and one northwest of Peoria. The group says the signs would pay tribute to the more than 20 cattle killed as a result of negligent driving this year.

Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Josh Kauffman says the request will likely be denied because the state's Roadside Memorial Act specifies that only relatives who lost loved ones in highway crashes may request memorials.

In 2006, Virginia rejected PETA's request for highway markers to memorialize hogs killed in crashes on their way to slaughter at Smithfield Foods.