Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
A generous Italian-American PETA member is offering to pay $100,000 to erect a permanent testimony to vegetarianism in Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport with a sentiment expressed by da Vinci himself. As Italy faces a mounting debt crisis, PETA has made the country's new prime minister, Mario Monti, an offer that we hope he can't refuse.
Illustration: © iStockphoto.com/Ivan Burmistrov | Plaque: © Alfonsodetomas/Dreamstime.com | Wall: © iStockphoto.com/parema
"Our goal is to assist Italy and highlight da Vinci's passionate, but seldom discussed, refusal to eat meat," writes PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews in a letter to Monti.
Da Vinci, who appears in PETA's new Vegetarian Icons postage stamp collection, was such an ardent defender of animals that he sometimes bought caged birds from poultry vendors and set them free. He frequently wrote about cruelty to animals in his Notebooks, writing of the meat and dairy industries, "Endless multitudes will have their little [babies] taken from them, ripped open and flayed and most cruelly cut in pieces" and "Of the beasts from whom cheese is made … the milk will be taken from the tiny [babies]."
Do you think Italy's prime minister should accept PETA's offer to erect our da Vinci sign?
Written by Michelle Kretzer
Where can you see Bryan Adams rubbing elbows with Leo Tolstoy and Russell Simmons hanging with Leonardo da Vinci? Only on PETA's limited-edition postage sheet from Stamps.com—the sheet honors some of the most influential and recognizable vegetarians throughout history.
Bob Barker and Pamela Anderson—two of the celebrities whose faces will soon be crisscrossing the U.S. on envelopes—unveiled the new postage this morning at the Hollywood Post Office.
Addressing the swarm of clamoring reporters, Pam said, "I'm just happy to be here and happy to be associated with PETA. … [M]y mom is very proud of this." And the inimitable Bob Barker joked, "I was happy to do it when they told me I didn't have to die in order to [be on a stamp]!"
The postage sheets are available at PETA's online store, just in time to grace your holiday cards with a reminder to loved ones to think before they eat.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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