‘COVID Cow’ to Hand Out Free Toilet Paper to Help Abate Pandemic Shortage

Each Square of Precious Paper Carries a Message to Help Users 'Wipe Out' Future Animal-Borne Flus and Other Diseases

For Immediate Release:
March 31, 2020

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

Jacksonville, Fla. – With toilet paper stripped from store shelves because of the coronavirus pandemic, PETA’s “COVID Cow” is coming to the rescue with squares to spare. She’ll hand out free rolls—each sheet printed with the message “Wipe Out Animal-Borne Illness: Go Vegan”—to any takers outside Publix on Wednesday. She’ll also offer a hands-free virtual vegan starter kit via a QR code.

When:    Wednesday, April 1, 12 noon

Where:    Publix, 2033 Riverside Ave., Jacksonville

“You get to the bottom of the issue when you see the link between animal-borne pathogens and a taste for flesh,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “At first flush, PETA’s paper reminds users that the only reliable way to prevent future pandemics is to avoid meat like the plague.”

Health authorities confirm that influenza viruses and coronaviruses are zoonotic (transmissible from other animals to humans)—and farms and markets crammed full of stressed animals are breeding grounds for such deadly maladies.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

For Media: Contact PETA's
Media Response Team.

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 Ingrid E. Newkirk

“Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights?” READ MORE

— Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA President and co-author of Animalkind