Video: ‘Artemis Fowl’ Star Ferdia Shaw Reveals Why He’s Vegan

15-Year-Old Actor Tells PETA U.K.: ‘If I Ruled the World, I Would Ban Any Eating of Animals’

For Immediate Release:
June 16, 2020

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

As Artemis Fowl launches on Disney+ this month, PETA U.K. caught up with the film’s star, Ferdia Shaw, for a new video to discuss the lessons he’s learned from his animal companions—and why he wishes everyone were vegan.

“My dog has taught me that it’s really the simple things that can make her so happy. Like, all she needs is a family to love her,” says Shaw, jokingly adding, “And my cat has taught me that she’s the boss.”

For Shaw, there’s no difference between the animals in his family and a pig or a cow in the meat industry. “They’re both animals, and they both just need love,” he says. “[I]t’s disgusting how they’re treated on these farms. They’re living in their own filth, and some animals don’t even ever see the light of day. In 50 years’ time, I hope that we will look back on our treatment of animals with disgust.”

PETA notes that each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals a year daily misery and a terrifying death. In today’s meat, egg, dairy, and fishing industries, cows are forcibly separated from their beloved calves, chickens’ throats are slit while they’re still conscious, piglets are castrated without painkillers, and fish are cut open while they’re still alive.

Shaw joins a growing list of celebrities—including Sarah Jeffery, China Anne McClain, Booboo Stewart, and Noah Cyrus—who have teamed up with PETA or its international affiliates to promote kindness toward animals.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers free vegan starter kits on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org.