PETA Ad Blitz Defends Rare Elk From Slaughter

For Immediate Release:
May 17, 2021

Contact:
Tapi Mbundure 202-483-7382

Washington –

PETA has placed ads on bus shelters and bike shares across D.C. condemning the National Park Service (NPS) for moving forward with a controversial plan to promote livestock ranching on Point Reyes National Seashore, in California—which would also allow for the slaughter of tule elk, the rarest subspecies of elk in the world.

Today, most of the remaining tule elk are trapped on a small peninsula of the national seashore behind a tall fence that protects forage resources for cattle. Hundreds of elk reportedly died in 2020 because the fence stopped them from seeking food and water elsewhere. Yet the plan would allow NPS to slaughter local elk as it sees fit and ranchers to keep over 5,500 cows on some 26,000 fenced-off acres of the seashore for 20 more years.

“With this reckless plan, the NPS is pandering to cattle ranchers and literally pushing elk to the margins of a national seashore,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “It’s going to take more than just PETA to protect dwindling populations of these beloved elk—we need the government’s advocacy, too.”

PETA notes that cattle ranching also wastes water and contributes to climate change; contaminates existing Point Reyes water supplies with manure, hormones, and antibiotics; and forces gentle cows to endure terrifying deaths in blood-soaked slaughterhouses, even though they feel pain and cherish their families, just as tule elk do.

PETA’s ads are located on bus shelters at the following locations:

18th Street, just south of E. Street N.W.
E. Street Expressway at Virginia Avenue N.W.
599 23rd St. N.W.

The ads are also located on bike shares at the following locations:

20th Street N.W. and E. Street
19th Street N.W. and Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Farragut Square at 17th Street N.W. and K Street
18th Street at C Street N.W.
21st Street at G Street N.W.

On Wednesday, May 19, PETA is placing an ad in The Washington Post that will read, “NPS, Secretary Haaland: Don’t Slaughter Tule Elk. Say No to Cattle Ranchers!”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.