Local 10-Year-Old Named Runner-Up in ‘Cutest Vegan Kid Contest’

PETA Celebrates Football Player’s Plant-Powered Performance on the Field

For Immediate Release:
June 18, 2019

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

When he was 8 years old, Leo Dorsey learned how the meat, egg, and dairy industries hurt animals—and he pledged to go vegan on the spot. He recognizes that animals have feelings, just as he does, and imagines how he would feel if he were in their shoes skin, fins, or feathers. Now a 10-year-old football player, he credits his vegan meals with keeping him light on his feet and eagerly encourages friends, teammates, and classmates to try eating vegan. In recognition of his passion, he’s been chosen as the runner-up in PETA Kids’ 2019 Cutest Vegan Kid Contest.

“Leo stood out in PETA Kids’ Cutest Vegan Kid Contest for proving that people of all ages can make the world a better place for animals,” says PETA Senior Director Marta Holmberg. “Whether he’s demonstrating how athletes can thrive on vegan meals or encouraging friends and teammates to make kind choices, Leo sets a shining example of compassion for everyone to follow.”

In addition to his passion for vegan dining, Leo is staunchly opposed to keeping wild animals in captivity: He says that aquariums and other facilities that do so are jails for animals who’ve done nothing wrong. When he grows up, he wants to be a running back in the NFL—or the CEO of a computer-programming company, because he’s an avid video game player.

PETA Kids—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. The group selected the winner and runner-up based on several factors, including vote count. This year’s winner, 11-year-old Eshiana Coleman of San Jose, California, is also an accomplished athlete: She’s already an elite-level acrobatic gymnast.

For more information, please visit PETAKids.com.