Iowa Police Hear From PETA: #DonutDisrespect Other Species

Sweeten Community Relations and Protect Everyone’s Well-Being With Gift of Delicious Vegan Doughnuts From PETA

For Immediate Release:
April 20, 2017

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

The Ames and Iowa State University police departments will pass out free doughnuts over the next two weeks—including via a “donutmobile” that will bear the hashtag #DonutDisrespect—to spread a message of communal respect. And PETA wants to help them truly serve (up cruelty-free treats) and protect (residents’ health) and also extend their respect to animals: The group is offering dozens of doughnuts—including Bavarian crème doughnuts, raspberry-filled ones, and ring doughnuts with icing—free of charge and free of any animal-derived ingredients.

“PETA’s delicious donated doughnuts are jam-packed with flavor and free of the cruelty associated with the industrialized egg and dairy industries,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “It would be a crime for citizens to miss out on these sweet treats that also show respect for animals.”

In a letter sent to the police departments this morning, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that vegan doughnuts have no cholesterol, have no saturated animal fat, and are lower in total fat than their egg- and dairy-based counterparts. They are also kinder to mother cows, who are artificially inseminated and then separated from their newborn calves on dairy farms, as well as to chickens who are kept in tiny wire “battery cages” on filthy egg farms.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to the Ames police follows.

April 20, 2017

Eric Snyder

Community Resource Officer

Ames Police Department

Dear Officer Snyder,

I’m writing on behalf of PETA and our more than 6.5 million members and supporters worldwide—including many across Iowa—in response to the Ames and Iowa State University police departments’ great spring outreach campaign. I’d like to make an offer that would promote a message of respect toward all Iowans—humans and animals alike. We’d like to help you serve (up cruelty-free treats) and protect (residents’ health) by donating tasty, cholesterol-free vegan doughnuts for you to hand out to the community—including to people who are lactose-intolerant and who doughnut eat animal-derived foods for health, religious, or environmental reasons.

Distributing delicious dairy- and egg-free doughnuts would be a great way to get people talking about being decent and respectful to all living beings, regardless of race, gender, religion, or species. For example, if people can relate to the animals who are being factory-farmed (and ultimately killed) for food, it should be a snap for them to relate to their fellow human beings. On most egg farms these days, chickens are crammed into cages so small that they can’t even stretch a wing and part of their nerve-filled beaks is cut off without painkillers. Cows used for dairy foods are often forced to live ankle-deep in their own waste and are subjected to routine mutilations, such as when the sensitive horn tissue is burned out of their heads with no painkillers. Violence begets violence, but it’s also true that kindness begets kindness.

When you consider that 6 percent of Americans now identify as vegans, 75 percent of the world’s population experiences symptoms of lactose intolerance, and 36 percent of U.S.consumers prefer nondairy foods to dairy items, it makes sense to give cows and chickens arrest by handing out treats that are sweet to both humans and animals.

We hope you doughnut turn down our offer. Thank you for your consideration.
Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk

President