Coronavirus Mask Shortage Update From PETA

For Immediate Release:
February 28, 2020

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

When news of the coronavirus first broke, PETA commissioned face masks emblazoned with a pro-vegan message, since the virus started at a live-animal meat market. The masks—which are to be sold at the PETA Shop—are currently held up at the supplier in China with no projected arrival date.

PETA is urging people to go vegan in the face of the coronavirus crisis because it’s the only way to cut off animal-borne pathogens at the source. Scientists in China have linked the virus to bats and snakes—and it’s been widely reported that the outbreak appears to have originated in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where these and other animals are sold as food. Any health authority will confirm that most influenza viruses and coronaviruses are zoonotic (transmissible from other animals to humans)—and filthy farms and markets crammed full of stressed animals are breeding grounds for these deadly maladies.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat,” and we oppose speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.