Don’t Let Your Child Be ‘The Last of Us’: New PETA Video Urges Parents to Go Vegan—Before It’s Too Late

For Immediate Release:
March 9, 2023

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-73821

With everyone abuzz about the season finale of post-apocalyptic show The Last of Us, a new PETA TV spot airing this week during similarly grim movies The Day After Tomorrow and Zombieland is pointing to animal agriculture as a leading cause of the climate catastrophe and asking viewers, “Are you a bad parent?” while urging them to safeguard their children’s future by banning environmentally devastating meat and dairy from their homes.

Much like The Last of Us’ Ellie (played by vegan Bella Ramsey), PETA’s protagonist is a young orphan trying to navigate a post-apocalyptic world. In the video, she lists the rules her mom enforced—such as not touching the stove or talking to strangers online—to keep her safe: “You said it was your job to protect me. You were always telling me what not to do. … But you never said, ‘Don’t eat meat or dairy.’ Now look what you’ve done,” the girl says before disappearing.

“The horrors portrayed in The Last of Us are imaginary, but as Greta Thunberg has made clear, kids will face a truly dire future if we continue pumping greenhouse gases from meat and dairy production into the atmosphere,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “No parent wants to doom their children to an inhospitable planet, which is why PETA is urging them to feed them vegan before it’s too late.”

According to the United Nations, about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions is linked to food production, and the largest percentage of these gases come from the meat and dairy industries. Vegan foods—such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, peas, nuts, and lentils—require less energy, land, and water, and switching to plant-powered eating can help the world avoid the worst effects of the climate catastrophe.

PETA’s video will air on the following channels and dates—as well as during the season 8 premiere of Fear the Walking Dead:

• SYFY, Saturday, March 11, during The Day After Tomorrow (9:25 p.m. ET/6:25 p.m. PT) and Zombieland (11:58 p.m ET/8:58 p.m. PT)
• SYFY, Sunday, March 12, during Zombieland (1:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT) and The Day After Tomorrow (3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT)

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.