Attention, Fringe-Goers! Alan Cumming Has a Message for You
Going to Edinburgh for Fringe? Keep your eyes peeled. To celebrate the start of the festival, award-winning Scottish actor Alan Cumming appears on a giant eye-catching billboard to urge everyone to choose vegan options when shopping or dining out.
With just a strategically placed head of romaine lettuce doing little to cover his naughty bits, the PETA US honorary director encourages festivalgoers to join him in going vegan.
Watch this exclusive behind-the-scenes video to see how and why this head-turning ad was made:
Alan Cumming – Your New Favourite Vegan Option
Alan, who went vegan in 2012, has become a passionate advocate for animal-friendly eating. He previously handed out free vegan ice cream at the Edinburgh Fringe, spoke out against a proposed caviar farm in Scotland, and called for Glasgow’s COP26 to be a vegan event.
“If someone is questioning being vegan, I would say to them, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Just do it. It’s so easy!’ We’re not living in the dark ages!”
– Alan Cumming
He also belongs to a growing list of celebrities – including Paul McCartney, Natalie Portman, Alicia Silverstone, Thandiwe Newton, Joaquin Phoenix, Woody Harrelson, and Peter Dinklage – who have teamed up with PETA entities to promote kindness to animals.
Why Vegan?
Cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, and fish have feelings, thoughts, and personalities, just as we do. Yet the meat, dairy, egg, and fishing industries treat them like machines, with cruelty that’s hard to swallow.
Cows raised to produce milk may spend their entire lives standing on concrete floors. Treated as milk-producing machines, they’re selectively bred to produce unnaturally high volumes of milk. Their calves are taken away from them within 36 hours of birth, causing grief and anguish to both mother and baby. When they are worn out and can no longer produce such high volumes of milk, they’re sent to an abattoir and killed.
Chickens are sent to slaughter without ever having roosted in a tree, taken a dust bath, interacted with their parents, or done any of the other things that are natural and important to them. They’re roughly shoved into crates and driven to an abattoir, where they’re stunned before slaughter, either by gassing or by being shackled by the legs and hung upside down on a production line so that their heads can be plunged into an electric water bath.
Humans don’t need to consume animal flesh, milk, or eggs to live. In fact, we’re healthier if we don’t.
Each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year and greatly reduces their carbon footprint.
Join Alan: Explore the World of Vegan Options
As Alan said, “Just do it!” Going vegan has never been easier, and PETA is here to help you navigate life as a vegan. Take our pledge and we’ll share with you our best tips, recipes, and guides. Do it now!