Stevie Johnson Bares His Skin in Fierce New Anti-Fur PETA Ad

49ers Wide Receiver Calls On Holiday Shoppers to Keep Winter Wardrobes Fur-Free

For Immediate Release:
November 17, 2014

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Stevie Johnson, a wide receiver with the 49ers, knows something about toughing it out on the field for a win, and he’s teaming up with PETA to use his competitive spirit to bear down on the fur industry. Johnson bares both his rippling physique and his stunning tattoos in PETA’s new “Ink, Not Mink” ad, which proclaims, “Be Comfortable in Your Own Skin, and Let Animals Keep Theirs.”

“You hear about people wearing fur, but you don’t think about what they’re doing to the animals to get that fur,” Johnson says in a video interview. “Just imagine if you were in that situation—put yourself in their shoes.”

Every year, millions of animals—including foxes, rabbits, raccoons, minks, and even dogs and cats—are beaten, gassed, electrocuted, and skinned alive for their fur. Johnson encourages consumers to empathize with the animals killed for the scraps of fur that are used in coats, trim, and collars.

Johnson and PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—want everyone to know that stylish, fur-free options are widely available from high-profile designers such as Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, and Vivienne Westwood.

Johnson joins a growing list of top athletes—including Antoine Bethea, Terrell Suggs, Bret Lockett, Chad Johnson, Tony Gonzalez, Michael Strahan, “Sugar” Shane Mosley, and Chris “Birdman” Andersen—who’ve teamed up with PETA or its affiliates to encourage kindness to animals.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.