Local Yogi Is a Finalist in PETA’s ‘Sexiest Vegan Over 50 Contest’

Animal Advocate Battles It Out to Take Home Top Honors—and a Free Stay at a Luxury Beachfront Wellness Retreat

For Immediate Release:
September 18, 2019

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

PETA Prime is preparing to crown this year’s Sexiest Vegans Over 50—and local author, activist, and yoga instructor Beryl Bender Birch is vying for one of two winners’ spots. She beat out entrants from across the country to advance to the final round of six contestants. Visitors to PETA Prime’s website can now help the group select the two lucky winners, who will each receive a three-night stay at Balance for Life Florida, an all-inclusive wellness retreat at a beautiful oceanfront resort.

Bender Birch went vegetarian in 1971 after studying meditation with a Jain monk from India, and she has incorporated the idea of compassion for all living, feeling beings into her yoga and meditation teachings—and into her four books, one of which sold nearly 300,000 copies. She also ditched dairy and eggs several years ago, and she credits vegan eating with lowering her blood pressure, putting her autoimmune disease into remission, and improving her health and energy levels. A longtime PETA supporter and member of numerous animal rights groups, she’s currently working to enact a statewide ban on the sale of dogs and cats from pet stores and rallying lawmakers and residents to keep cruel and deadly horse races from returning to her hometown.

“Beryl Bender Birch has been an animal rights proponent for decades, and her passion for saving animals’ lives just keeps getting stronger,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Each of the finalists in PETA Prime’s Sexiest Vegan Over 50 Contest is a testament to how attractive vegans of all ages are, inside and out.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. The group notes that in addition to saving nearly 200 animals each every year from daily suffering and a terrifying death, people who go vegan are less prone to suffering from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity than meat-eaters are.

Voting for the finalists to help PETA Prime determine which ones it should select as the winners ends on September 27. The group will choose the winners based on several factors, including vote count. See the full contest details here. Winners will be notified and announced on September 30.

For more information, please visit Prime.PETA.org.