SeaTac 81-Year-Old May Be PETA’s ‘Most Beautiful Vegan’
Patricia Layden Is One of Five Finalists Vying for Top Honors in Group’s Annual Contest for the 50+ Set
For Immediate Release:
October 29, 2020
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
PETA Prime is preparing to crown this year’s Most Beautiful Vegan Over 50—and local retiree Patricia Layden is in the running for the top spot. She beat out entrants from across the country to advance to the final round of five contestants, and visitors to PETA Prime’s website can now help the group select the lucky winner.
When Layden was 71, the documentary Forks Over Knives inspired her to help stop cruelty to animals and protect her health by going vegan—and 10 years later, she’s eagerly encouraging her friends to give it a try, too. She helps lead an exercise group for local seniors and creates art through beading and needle felting, and she and her husband rent homes on their property to people who need affordable housing.
“I guess I’ve always had a heart for the underdog,” she tells PETA. “Everyone and everything is here because it is meant to be here. All life deserves respect.” Layden also never shies away from trying new things: She got her first tattoo on her 75th birthday (and a second one to celebrate turning 80)!
“Patricia Layden clearly has a huge heart, because she can’t stand by and watch someone suffer if there’s something she can do to help,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “The finalists in PETA Prime’s Most Beautiful Vegan Over 50 Contest are setting an example for people of all ages by choosing compassion every time they sit down to eat.”
In addition to each sparing the lives of nearly 200 animals per year, vegans are less prone to suffering from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity than meat-eaters are and help prevent future pandemics: SARS, swine flu, bird flu, and COVID-19 all infected humans as a result of confining and killing animals for food.
Voting for the finalists to help PETA Prime determine the winner ends on November 11. The group will choose the winner based on several factors, including vote count. See the full contest details here. The winner—who will receive a $125 gift certificate to the PETA Shop and an exclusive profile story on the PETA Prime website—will be notified and announced on November 20.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit Prime.PETA.org.
