Will Cash-Strapped USPS Score Some Funds From PETA?

Pro-Vegan ‘Address Your Health’ Ads Could Help Struggling Agency ‘Lick’ Financial Woes

For Immediate Release:
August 24, 2020

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

In response to the financial crisis facing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), PETA sent a letter this morning offering to pay to place ads with pro-vegan messages—such as “It’s Time to Address Your Health. Go Vegan” and “Don’t ‘Mail It in’ When It Comes to Your Health. Choose Vegan”—on USPS trucks and mailboxes and in post offices to help the agency stay afloat.

PETA points out that in today’s meat industry, chickens’ throats are slit while they’re still conscious, pigs’ tails and testicles are cut off without painkillers, fish suffocate or are cut open on the decks of fishing boats, and mother cows on dairy farms are repeatedly forcibly impregnated, only to be separated from their babies just hours after birth. In addition to causing the mutilation and violent death of billions of animals every year, eating meat is linked to deadly health conditions in humans, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

“To save animals and safeguard our own health, delicious, healthy, and humane vegan meals are the total package,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA hopes to give the USPS a boost and deliver a message to the public that going vegan is the route to take.”

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.

PETA’s letter to USPS Executive Vice President Steve Monteith follows.

August 24, 2020

Steve Monteith
Chief Customer & Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President
United States Postal Service

Dear Mr. Monteith,

I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 6.5 million members and supporters worldwide in response to the news that the United States Postal Service is facing a financial crisis with an offer to deliver some funding. We’d like to pay to place eye-catching ads that read, “Don’t ‘mail it in’ when it comes to your HEALTH. Choose vegan,” on mailboxes and mail trucks and in post offices. This win-win offer would help avoid sacking your vital public service while also spreading a lifesaving message to save animals and protect public health. Please allow me to elaborate.

As you may know, the public-health risks associated with the consumption of animals are serious, and it is urgent that we address them at the source. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 75% of recently emerged infectious diseases in humans began in other animals. COVID-19, which has claimed the lives of more than 173,000 Americans, is believed to have originated at a live-animal market in China, where vendors sell animals for human consumption. Filthy factory farms and slaughterhouses in this country are perfect breeding grounds for dangerous bacteria and viruses. In fact, deadly outbreaks of swine flu (which originated on U.S. pig farms), avian flu, mad cow disease, SARS, and other zoonotic diseases have resulted from using animals for food, and the next pandemic is not a matter of if but when.

Consuming meat and dairy has also been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, and the World Health Organization reports that processed meats cause cancer. Healthier vegan foods can support heart health because plants don’t contain dietary cholesterol and are low in saturated fat but high in fiber. And at a time when many of us are facing financial uncertainty because of a pandemic that originated in a meat market, nutrient-rich vegan foods like lentils, rice, tofu, and beans are cheap buys that can also save money on health-care costs in the long run.

We also have two additional ad options here and here, if you prefer. We hope you’ll partner with us to make this message stick in the minds of Americans. It’s time for us to be a post–animal abuse society, and everyone who goes vegan after seeing our ad can help prevent the next global pandemic while sparing nearly 200 animals a year horrible suffering and a terrifying death. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you about our offer.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk

President