Giving Up Meat for Lent? Not So Fast! Show Mercy to All By Going Vegan

For Immediate Release:
February 27, 2025

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

With Ash Wednesday approaching next week—and because many people forgo most meat for Lent but may still opt to eat fish—PETA is encouraging everyone to leave all animals, including those who swim, off their plates during this season of mercy.

It’s no seacret that fish, like all animals, feel pain and fear and value their lives. Yet more fish are killed for food each year than all other animals combined. They’re impaled, crushed, suffocated, or cut open and gutted—often while they’re completely conscious. In addition, over 40 million tons of other aquatic animals, including dolphins, whales, and sea turtles, are unintentionally caught each year to satisfy humans’ demand for sea life.

Vegan fish is not only kinder to animals and the environment, but also healthier and free of the many toxic chemicals found in the flesh of fish, including mercury, lead, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PETA’s Christian outreach division, LAMBS (“Least Among My Brothers and Sisters” from Matthew 25:50) offers easy vegan recipes for Lent on its website, a free vegan starter kit containing tips, and other resources. Many wonderful “seafood” products are also available in grocery stores and online, and PETA’s extensive library of appetizing, easy-to-make recipes includes these 17 Fabulous Vegan Fish Recipes, whose highlights include “Fish” and Chips With Vegan Tartar Sauce, Filet-O-Fish-Less sandwich, “Fish” Tacos, and more.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. PETA’s free vegan starter kit is filled with tips to help anyone looking to make the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.