‘Tofu Never Caused a Pandemic’ Ad Blitz Offers Solution Amid Rising COVID-19 Cases

PETA Uses One of the World's Most Versatile Foods to Highlight Contrast Between Eating for Life and Eating Products of Death

For Immediate Release:
August 20, 2020

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Los Angeles – As the number of COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles rises, PETA is posting ads on dozens of city benches encouraging people to choose vegan foods like tofu instead of what comes out of filthy blood-splattered slaughterhouses and factory farms, where animal-borne diseases thrive and workers face a nearly unchecked spread of COVID-19.

“Tasty vegan foods like tofu are the key to preventing deadly zoonotic diseases as well as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and strokes,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA stands ready to help people make the switch with its free vegan mentors, vegan recipes, tips, and more.”

Not only is tofu cheaper than meat, it also is packed with protein, contains zero cholesterol, and can lower one’s risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and numerous other life-threatening health issues. The novel coronavirus is believed to have originated in a live-animal market in China, where live and dead animals are sold for food. Previous influenza viruses have originated in pigs and chickens—but never in vegan foods like tofu.

PETA offers a variety of delicious tofu-based recipes on its website, such as General Tso’s Tofu and Buffalo Tofu-Scramble Breakfast Tacos.

The ads are located on 50 benches around Los Angeles, including ones at the intersections of Hyperion Avenue and Tracy Street, Fountain Avenue and Hoover Street, and Sunset Boulevard and Micheltorena Street (pictured above).

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.

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