‘Cruelty Doesn’t Fly’: Controversial PETA Ads Land at Local Airport
For Immediate Release:
December 16, 2021
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
In a victory for free speech, an initially rejected anti-leather ad campaign from PETA will take off at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN), after all. BZN had initially refused to run the ad, until PETA argued that such a move would be unconstitutional—and now, holiday travelers will see the edgy slogan pasted across luggage carts.
“Vegan leather doesn’t come with the emotional baggage of knowing that a cow was killed for it,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Because PETA won this victory, travelers at Montana’s busiest airport will consider the gentle cows who are carved up to make leather bags and shoes.”
Montana, one of the largest cattle-farming states, has two and a half times more cows than humans. Because skin is one of the most economically important coproducts of the meat industry, buying leather directly contributes to factory farming and the slaughter of animals. Cows killed for leather may be skinned and dismembered while still conscious—after they’ve endured castration, branding, and tail-docking without painkillers. Rather than supporting this cruelty, conscientious shoppers can easily find vegan leathers made of innovative materials like pineapple leaves, apple peels, cork, and coconuts.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
