Council Member Brannan Joins Tofurky Giveaway
#ThanksVegan Gets Support in Brooklyn
For Immediate Release:
November 24, 2020
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
Vegan foods are selling like hotcakes, so Thanksgiving is morphing into “ThanksVegan“—and tomorrow, PETA, along with animal rights group NYCLASS and vegetarian Council Member Justin Brannan, will help the Big Apple jump on the bandwagon by giving away 50 vegan Tofurky roasts outside Brannan’s office in Brooklyn. The action comes just a week after PETA rescued two turkeys from the city’s live-animal markets, which are still operating even though the novel coronavirus is believed to have originated in such a market.
When: Wednesday, November 25, 12 noon–1 p.m.
Where: 8203 Third Ave., Brooklyn
“PETA is delighted to join forces with NYCLASS and Council Member Brannan to help everyone have a delicious ThanksVegan meal that gives gentle birds something to be thankful for, too,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “When it comes to having feelings, loving their families, and valuing their lives, turkeys are individuals, just as much as any of us.”
“NYCLASS is thrilled to partner with Councilmember Justin Brannan and PETA to offer delicious vegan roasts to the Bay Ridge community as a healthy and compassionate alternative to turkey this Thanksgiving,” says NYCLASS Executive Director Edita Birnkrant. “We hope to make the #ThanksVegan giveaway an annual tradition!”
“The best way to pardon a turkey is to not eat one at all! This year, as an elected official who is also a vegetarian, I figured I would give my constituents a taste of a karma-free Thanksgiving,” says Brannan. “Thanks to NYCLASS and PETA for teaming up with me to give away plant-based alternatives, as just another way of making sure no one goes hungry this holiday.”
More than 46 million turkeys are killed each year for Thanksgiving alone, and most of them are just babies—under 26 weeks old—when they’re hung upside down and dragged through an electrified bath. They’re often still conscious when their throats are slit and they’re dumped into scalding-hot defeathering tanks.
PETA’s #ThanksVegan campaign also includes pro-turkey “I’m ME, Not MEAT” billboards across the country; its “Grace” TV ad, in which a little girl makes some pointed comments while saying grace at the dinner table; protests outside turkey slaughterhouses, which are COVID-19 hotspots; and partnerships with restaurants and grocery stores to promote animal-free options.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
