Easter ‘Chicken’ Lays Plastic Eggs on White House Sidewalk in Factory Farming Protest

PETA Mascot Wants Fun Fakes for an Egg Roll That’s Kind to Hens

For Immediate Release:
March 30, 2015

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

On Tuesday, in advance of the annual Easter Egg Roll, the world’s cutest “chicken” will deliver colorful plastic eggs containing chenille “chicks” and a message to share with the White House and passersby: Reusable plastic eggs prevent hens from enduring cramped, filthy conditions.

Where:           The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C.

When:             Tuesday, March 31, 11 a.m.

“For the chickens in tiny cages on egg farms, Easter is no picnic,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “PETA is asking the White House to swap the real eggs used in the Easter Egg Roll for fun fakes that spare real chickens a sad life.”

It can take up to 34 hours for a hen to produce just one of the thousands of eggs slated to be used in the Easter Egg Roll. In 2012, the White House boiled 19,000 eggs for the event. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—has documented that chickens suffer immensely in today’s industrialized egg industry, including having parts of their sensitive beaks cut off with hot blades when they’re only days old and spending their lives crammed into crowded cages or filthy sheds.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.