'Lettuce Help You Dig Into a Vegan Lifestyle--Vegans Rock!' Says Bikinied Beauty

For Immediate Release:
October 28, 2009

Contact:
Ashley Byrne 757-622-7382

Peoria, Ill. -- This morning, PETA sent a letter to Caterpillar Inc.'s Chair and CEO James Owens offering to buy advertising space on the company's off-highway rental trucks in order to tout the benefits of going vegan. PETA's request follows news reports that Caterpillar has hit on hard financial times. The ad would feature PETA's "Lettuce Lady," a sexy blonde who is shown in a lettuce-leaf bikini alongside the tagline "'Lettuce' Help You Dig Into a Vegan Lifestyle--Vegans Rock!" PETA has also offered to send one of its Lettuce Ladies to unveil the new ad and hand out faux-meat sandwiches to Caterpillar's staff.

"Our ads promoting eating 'green' would help keep Caterpillar in the black," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Raising revenue by urging residents to adopt a healthy, humane, environmentally friendly vegan diet is a win-win situation."

In the letter, PETA points out that meat consumption has been linked to many of the nation's top killer diseases--including heart disease, cancer, and obesity--and that meat production not only causes immense animal suffering but also is the leading cause of greenhouse-gas emissions.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA's letter to Caterpillar Inc. Chair and CEO James W. Owens follows.

October 28, 2009

James W. Owens

Chair and CEO
Caterpillar, Inc.

Dear Mr. Owens,

On behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our tens of thousands of members and supporters in Illinois, we are sorry to hear about your company's financial problems. I have a proposition that could bring much-needed revenue and lots of welcome attention to Caterpillar and promote a healthier community to boot. We have designed an eye-catching ad (attached) that features one of our Lettuce Ladies (a gorgeous woman dressed only in lettuce leaves) and reads, "'Lettuce' help you dig into a vegan lifestyle--vegans rock!" We're interested in paying to place the ad on the "off-highway" trucks that your company rents out. Our ad would help bolster Caterpillar's budget while not only bringing a smile to everyone who sees it but also delivering the lifesaving message that by digging into a vegan diet, people can help the environment, their health, and animals.

Studies show that vegans are far less likely to be overweight than meat-eaters are and far more likely to enjoy better overall health. According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians have lower rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer than people who eat meat. Going vegan is also the very best thing that you can do for the environment. In a U.N. report, Livestock's Long Shadow, scientists concluded that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, ships, SUVs, and planes in the world combined.

You'll also be glad to hear that every person who goes vegan will save more than 100 animals a year from the cruelty of the meat industry--such as confining mother pigs to cement stalls so small that they can't even turn around and drugging chickens to grow so large that their legs often become crippled under their own weight.

We hope you will consider placing our ad on your rental trucks. We'll even send our lovely Lettuce Ladies to unveil the ad and pass out delicious faux-meat sandwiches to your staff. Please contact me to discuss this exciting opportunity for Caterpillar. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President