City’s Climate Plan Sparks PETA ‘Cow on Fire’ Bus Ads

For Immediate Release:
September 2, 2021

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Inspired by Tree Town’s laudatory goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 and the city’s recent ban on fur sales, which was partly motivated by environmental concerns, PETA is placing ads on local buses putting leather production under fire for exacerbating the climate crisis.

Animal agriculture—which includes the leather industry, a major part of meat and dairy profit margins—is responsible for nearly one-fifth of all human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions. The World Bank reports that cattle ranching has caused over 80% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest since 1970, and because of fires—many of which are deliberately set to clear land to raise cows and grow crops to feed them—along with hotter temperatures and droughts, parts of the Amazon are now emitting more carbon dioxide than they can absorb.

“Avoiding leather is an easy thing that we can all do to avert a climate catastrophe, but we’re running out of time,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is asking people to save cows’ and everyone else’s skin by choosing vegan bags, shoes, and furnishings.”

In addition to harming the planet past the point of no return, leather production is abysmally cruel to cows. A PETA video exposé of the world’s largest leather producer revealed that the gentle animals were branded on the face, electroshocked, and beaten before being violently killed.

The ad will run on five buses with routes throughout the city for one month.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.