Vegan PETA Staffer Places First in Chartway Norfolk Harbor 10K

For Immediate Release:
November 26, 2024

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

This past weekend, 24-year-old Starlynn Costa, an assistant correspondent at peta2, part of PETA’s youth division, competed in the Chartway Norfolk Harbor 10K, placing first in the female division and second overall, with a time of 37:47—and she did it as a plant-powered, vegan athlete. Costa’s run helped raise money for PETA’s work to stomp out the cruelty and deaths in the horseracing industry.

“I choose to run, but the horses who are whipped and drugged—all for a time on the clock—have no choice,” says Costa “I’m proud to contribute to PETA’s work to clean up this dangerous, deadly industry.”

Last month—in another fundraiser for exploited horses—Costa placed first in the women’s division of the AmeriHealth Atlantic City 10K in New Jersey.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—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.

More information about Costa and PETA’s campaign against the cruelty inherent in the horseracing industry:

PETA investigations have exposed that in the racing industry, injured, overmedicated horses are forced to sprint—often under the threat of whips and even illegal electric shock devices—at speeds so fast that they frequently sustain fatal injuries or hemorrhage from the lungs. Three horses die every day on U.S. racetracks, and some of those who survive are sent to slaughter when they’re no longer profitable.

Costa was inspired to start running after watching the film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, in which a horse named Spirit saves other horses from being ridden by humans. That story, along with going vegan, inspired her to work for animal rights.

At peta2, Costa works with students to help them plan animal rights events at their schools. She’s participated in several PETA actions herself, including protesting outside the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show to slam breeders for contributing to the homeless-animal overpopulation crisis and helping coordinate a tour of Ellie the Elephant, the group’s life-size animatronic elephant who visits schools across the country to teach students about the cruelty of animal circuses and elephant rides.

Costa was born in Minnesota, earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in communications at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, and the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. She is currently based in Vineland, New Jersey.

Horses are herd animals who can feel stressed and lonely if forced to live alone and that they mourn each other’s deaths. They use different vocalizations to communicate greetings, departures, mating calls, and danger, and mother horses make a deep soothing sound when nursing their babies.