PETA Asks Jill Biden to Take a Crack at a New Tradition and Host Easter Potato Roll

For Immediate Release:
March 11, 2024

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Ahead of the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, PETA sent a letter to Dr. Jill Biden today asking the first lady to modernize the celebration by replacing eggs with dyed Easter potatoes. PETA notes that an annual “White House Potato Roll” would please everyone who doesn’t eat these cholesterol bombs for health, cultural, religious, or environmental reasons or because they don’t want to support filthy factory farms, where hundreds of millions of hens are confined to cages smaller than a letter-size sheet of paper, unable to stretch even one wing. In starch contrast, potatoes are cheaper and healthier than eggs and leave birds in peace.

“Children love animals and would be sad to learn that the eggs used for fun and games at the White House come from tormented hens whose lives are spent in cages that afford them less space than a standard sheet of typing paper,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Easter should be a time of renewal and joy for all sentient beings—and that means hens, too.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to Dr. Biden follows.

March 11, 2024

Jill Biden, Ed.D.
The White House

Dear Dr. Biden:

I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world’s largest animal rights organization, with more than 5 million members and supporters in the U.S., to respectfully suggest an appeeling way to modernize the White House Easter Egg Roll—one that would be truly inclusive and welcomed by every tot who doesn’t eat eggs for religious, cultural, or environmental reasons or because they object to the way animals, including hens whose reproductive systems are exploited for eggs, are raised and killed these days. Instead of promoting the deleterious factory farming and slaughter industries, will you please initiate the annual White House Potato Roll?

Easter is not a time of renewal or joy for chickens on egg factory farms. It can take up to 36 hours in typically hellish conditions for a hen—who spends her entire life in a cage smaller than a letter-sized sheet of paper—to produce just one of the thousands of eggs slated to be used at the White House Easter Egg Roll. In starch contrast, a potato roll wouldn’t exploit any sentient beings and would encourage empathy and kindness to animals while supporting potato farmers in the U.S. Potatoes are the most popular vegetable in the country and can be safely dyed, allowing for spudtacular traditional activities, such as rolling them, seeking for them, and decorating them. You could even hold potato sack races and games of hot potato!

Amid the worst avian flu outbreak in history, in which almost 82 million birds—most of them egg-laying chickens—have been slaughtered, and during a period of rising egg prices, we’re rooting for you to leave a legacy of kindness by starting this new Easter tradition.

We wish you and your family a very happy Easter and look forward to hearing from you.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid Newkirk
President