‘Don’t Eat Peppa Pig!’ PETA Urges Luther Burbank Center for the Arts

PETA Asks for Pepperoni to Be Taken off the Menu As Peppa Takes the Stage

For Immediate Release:
February 27, 2020

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

With the highly anticipated Peppa Pig’s Adventure! headed to the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts next month, PETA sent the theater a letter this morning calling on it to honor Peppa by serving exclusively vegan concessions the day of the show—or, even better, indefinitely.

“Peppa’s young fans would be horrified to learn that the pepperoni pizza served at the Luther Burbank Center is made from sensitive pigs just like her,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on the theater to spare animals immense suffering by adopting a delicious vegan menu that everyone can enjoy.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. The group has offered to provide the theater with vegan pizza to serve on the day of Peppa Pig’s Adventure!

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts follows.

February 27, 2020

Richard Nowlin
President and CEO
Luther Burbank Center for the Arts

Dear Mr. Nowlin,

I’m writing on behalf of PETA and our more than 6.5 million members and supporters worldwide, including many hundreds across California, after learning that Peppa Pig’s Adventure! will be on stage in March. We have a request: Out of respect for Peppa, we urge you to remove the pepperoni pizza and a few other items not friendly to animals from concessions during the show’s run—or, even better, for good.

Many of the young children who will cheer for Peppa would be horrified to learn that pepperoni pizza is made by slaughtering pigs like her. As I’m sure you know, pigs are extremely good-natured. They’re playful, affectionate, and sensitive, just like the dogs and cats who share our homes. Yet pigs used for food spend their lives confined to filthy factory farm sheds and are denied everything that’s natural and important to them, such as nurturing their young and rooting in the earth. Pigs’ tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and males are castrated—without any painkillers. At slaughterhouses, they’re hung upside down and bled to death, quite often while still conscious.

If you take meat off the menu, you may find that visitor numbers increase when news gets out, as the number of vegans has skyrocketed by 600% since 2014 and continues to climb. Avoiding pepperoni is also better for your patrons’ health. Eating meat, especially processed meat, has been linked to suffering from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. Unlike animal meat, pork-free ham, vegan bacon, and vegan sausage are healthy, cruelty-free, and full of fiber, and they contain no cholesterol.

Peppa shows others that she’s not a piece of bacon or a ham sandwich but an individual with emotions and the capacity to feel joy. We hope you’ll agree to serve only vegan foods during the show (including the pizza cheese and the milk, which are otherwise made by exploiting her friend, Mrs. Cow). PETA would be happy to help by supplying your concession stand with tasty, protein-rich vegan pizza and pepperoni and plant-based milk on the day of the performance. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President