DMV Rejects Vegan’s Request for ‘LVTOFU’ License Plate

For Immediate Release:
January 17, 2023

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has rejected Houston resident Catie Cryar’s pro-vegan license plate application for “LVTOFU,” claiming the soybean-celebrating message could be viewed as “vulgar.” In response, Cryar has just submitted an appeal stating that the license plate does not contain profanity and is “designed to inspire more people to try tofu.”

“The Texas DMV has the opportunity here to start driving positive change for animals who suffer daily for nothing more than a fleeting taste of their flesh,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA applauds any measure that saves animals’ lives and promotes the kind of tasty, high-quality proteins like tofu that are great for people on the go.”

Not only is tofu cheaper than meat, it is packed with protein, contains zero cholesterol, and can lower the risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, various types of cancer, and numerous other health problems. Every person who might have been inspired to go vegan by the “LVTOFU” message on Cryar’s license plate would have saved nearly 200 animals every year and dramatically shrunk their own carbon footprint. And tofu has never caused a pandemic, but SARS, swine flu, bird flu, and COVID-19 all stemmed from confining and killing animals for food.

A driver who sought approval for the very same license plate in Maine got the green light, but DMV offices in Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia have all turned down requests to proclaim the joy of soy.

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.