Spring Valley Grandmother May Be PETA’s ‘Most Beautiful Vegan’

For Immediate Release:
October 29, 2020

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

PETA Prime is preparing to crown this year’s Most Beautiful Vegan Over 50—and local 52-year-old grandmother Samantha Armijo 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.

Three years ago, Armijo’s son inspired her to go vegan. Within a few months, she was volunteering at a local farmed-animal sanctuary, participating in an animal rights march, and talking with friends and family about going vegan—often, the conversation is sparked by her animal tattoos!

Going vegan helped Armijo lose 40 pounds. She tells PETA, “I am vegan for the animals first, but also for the environment and for health is just a bonus.” She recently moved to California from Wyoming to help care for her 6-month-old grandson—a vegan, just like his mother, uncle, and grandmother.

“Samantha Armijo jumped feet-first into the world of animal advocacy, and now she encourages others to go vegan everywhere she goes,” 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.