TERRORIST THREAT PROMPTS PETA ADS AT WESTFIELD: 'BUY VEGAN, AND NO ONE GETS HURT'

New Campaign Points Out That Non-Violence Begins With What We Eat and Wear

London – In the wake of terrorist threats against shopping centres, including Westfield, PETA want to show shoppers that while they need to keep a watchful eye out for their own safety, they can do something tangible to cut down on violence against other living beings. The group plan to launch a new shopping mall ad campaign that shows cows' and lambs' faces next to the words, "Violence Is No Joke. Buy Vegan, and No One Gets Hurt".

Images of the campaigns can be seen here and here.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to eat, wear … or abuse in any other way" – hope that the ads will encourage shoppers to avoid subsidising violence and instead choose to buy cruelty-free food and clothing that leave animals alive and unharmed.

"Every shopper can make compassionate choices and reject needless violence to all living beings", says PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi. "PETA's posters are a reminder that cows and lambs endure violence and lose their lives for the sake of a steak or sweater – and that we can vote for non-violence simply by choosing vegan meals and clothing."

The violence carried out against animals used for food and clothing would shock all but the most hard-hearted person. Chickens and turkeys have their throats slit, fish are suffocated or cut open while they're still alive on the decks of fishing boats and calves are taken away from their mothers within hours of birth so that supermarkets can sell the milk that nature intended for them. Millions of animals whose skins are turned into leather endure branding, tail-docking, dehorning and castration – all without painkillers. And as PETA's exposé of the wool industry revealed, gentle sheep are beaten, punched and even killed by impatient shearers.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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