Photos: Vegan ‘Referee’ on Stilts Calls On World Cup Fans to ‘Give Meat and Dairy the Red Card’
Photos: Vegan ‘Referee’ on Stilts Calls On World Cup Fans to ‘Give Meat and Dairy the Red Card’
London – Today, a giant “referee” on stilts stood tall for animals and the planet when she descended on Doha, Qatar, to call on football fans to “give meat and dairy the red card” and go vegan. The activist, Teodora Zglimbea, 36, from London, was reminding everyone that each person who goes vegan saves nearly 200 animals a year – and as the consumption of animal-derived products has been linked to increased rates of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, the lives a person saves by eating vegan foods could include their own. According to scientists, cutting out meat and dairy is also “the single biggest way” an individual can reduce their environmental impact.
Images are available here and here (via EPA)
“Rejecting meat, eggs, and dairy is something we can all do to save animals, the planet, and ourselves,” says Zglimbea. “I came to Doha to spread the positive message that football players and fans can score big every day by enjoying vegan meals.”
Raising vast numbers of animals to kill them is a major driver of the climate catastrophe, causing ocean dead zones, water pollution, species extinction, and habitat destruction. By some estimates, animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transportation systems combined. Cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals exploited in the meat, egg, and dairy industries are often confined to filthy, severely crowded sheds and barns where they spend the majority of their lives without sunlight or fresh air.
Fortunately, more and more people around the globe, including athletes Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic, Chris Smalling, and Héctor Bellerín, are ditching animal-derived foods in favour of vegan eating. Legendary club Real Madrid CF recently partnered with plant-based meat company Meatless Farm to promote the benefits of vegan eating, while Liverpool FC encourages fans to get behind its “meat-free match days” initiative.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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