Mark Cuban’s Bid to Buy Hot Dog Chain Nets Vegan Proposal

PETA Asks Vegan-Food Investor to Turn Pittsburgh’s Original Hot Dog Shop Into a New Spot for Veggie Dogs

For Immediate Release:
May 28, 2020

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Mark Cuban recently revealed that he’s planning to purchase Pittsburgh’s Original Hot Dog Shop—which closed quietly last month—so PETA sent him a letter this morning offering the vegan-brand investor and vegetarian a foolproof business proposal: Dump the carcinogenic meaty hot dogs and turn “The O” into a vegan hot dog chain.

“Delicious veggie dogs could be the ticket to success for Mark Cuban’s latest venture,” says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “PETA is urging Cuban to jump on this opportunity to revive a Pittsburgh institution in a way that protects animals, the environment, and the health of the city’s residents.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—notes that the demand for vegan meats is skyrocketing: Sales were up 158% year on year, and amid a pandemic that originated in a meat market, they’ve increased by 454%.

For more information, visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to Cuban follows.

Dear Mark,

We saw your interview on The Pat McAfee Show and learned of your plan to buy Pittsburgh’s Original Hot Dog Shop. If the purchase goes through, why don’t you make the “O” vegan? As a vegetarian and an investor in multiple vegan brands on Shark Tank, you already know that vegan eating is delicious and healthy, saves animals, and is the single best way to fight climate change. Of course, it also makes great business sense. Since COVID-19 originated in a live-animal market (as SARS and H5N1 bird flu had earlier), more people have become aware of similar conditions on factory farms and in slaughterhouses in the U.S., where extreme cruelty and crowding create a breeding ground for pathogens that can be transmitted from other species to humans.

What do you think?

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. We’re always more than happy to help. Thanks so much!

All the best,

Matt Kilbourne

PETA