Hazmat Suit–Clad PETA Protesters to Demand Fur Farm Shutdown
For Immediate Release:
November 9, 2020
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
PETA members wearing bright-yellow hazmat suits and gas masks will descend on the Oregon State Capitol on Tuesday to call on Gov. Kate Brown to act quickly and close all fur factory farms in the state. The protest follows Denmark’s plan to kill every mink in the country—up to 17 million—after the novel coronavirus, which was transmitted from workers to the minks, mutated and went on to infect other humans. The legislation is being debated right now. Countries are beginning to bar entry to Danish travelers, and fur farms elsewhere have detected infections, too, including in more than 10,000 minks in Utah and Wisconsin.
When: Tuesday, November 10, 12 noon
Where: Oregon State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E., Salem
“Filthy fur factories packed with sick, stressed animals are hotspots for COVID-19, and the virus then mutates, rendering vaccines unlikely to be effective,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is asking Gov. Brown to save the lives of humans and other animals by shutting these dangerous places down.”
The novel coronavirus is believed to have originated in a live-animal market. Such markets represent a public health risk similar to that posed by fur factories—animals are confined right next to each other in wire cages, and disease can easily spread through inhalation, urine, excrement, pus, and blood. COVID-19 cases in minks have also prompted authorities in the Netherlands to shut down such operations.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
