Will Hershey Fight COVID-19 by Going Vegan?
PETA Sends Derry Township Chair a Box of Vegan Chocolates, Asks for Help Encouraging Residents to Choose Healthy, Humane, Meat-Free Meals
For Immediate Release:
July 29, 2020
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in Pennsylvania, PETA sent a letter this afternoon to the chair of Derry Township—the home of Hershey, the chocolate capitol of the U.S.—to encourage all residents to help prevent future pandemics, safeguard their own health, and save animals’ lives by going vegan.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—is also sending the chair a box of delicious vegan chocolates shaped like chickens, frogs, and bats, noting that these “animals” can be eaten without risking another pandemic. COVID-19 apparently originated in a Chinese “wet market,” in which animals are sold for human consumption. PETA is encouraging the township’s residents to extend compassion to all animals, including chickens and cows.
“The next SARS, swine flu, bird flu, or COVID-19 will be just around the corner as long as people keep eating animals,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA stands ready with free vegan starter kits and mentors to help everyone boost their immune system and help prevent future pandemics through delicious, humane, vegan meals.”
Luckily, going vegan has never been easier. PETA’s website offers a list of vegan-friendly restaurant chains. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA’s letter to Derry Township Chair Chris Abruzzo follows.
July 29, 2020
The Honorable Chris Abruzzo
Chair of Derry Township
Dear Mr. Abruzzo,
Greetings from PETA. As cases of COVID-19 continue to spike in Derry Township and throughout Dauphin County, putting public health at risk, I’m writing with a lifesaving suggestion: Encourage all residents to eat vegan. PETA stands ready to help them make the switch by offering resources such as our free vegan starter kits and our free vegan mentor services. We’ll also be sending you a box of dairy-free chocolates in the shapes of chickens, frogs, and bats—the only kind of “animals” that can be eaten compassionately and safely.
COVID-19, swine flu, avian flu, mad cow disease, SARS, Ebola, and AIDS are all linked to the production or consumption of meat, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that approximately 75% of recently emerged infectious diseases affecting humans originated in other animals. As long as animals are bred, confined in their own filth, and slaughtered, it’s not a matter of if another pandemic will occur but when.
Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other wholesome vegan foods are cholesterol-free, generally low in saturated fat, and high in fiber and other nutrients, and they can even prevent—and in some cases, reverse—life-threatening diseases as well as boost immunity. In fact, Corinne Bush, science director of the American Nutrition Association and a representative of the Personalized Nutrition & COVID-19 Task Force, advises people to eat plenty of produce in order to boost their immune system and ward off COVID-19 and other health problems. Dr. Mehmet Oz agrees, pointing out that fruits and vegetables “enhance your immune response,” and he shared antioxidant-rich smoothie recipes on TODAY.
We’re ready to help Derry Township residents turn over a healthy new vegan leaf, so please let us know how we can be of assistance. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
