For immediate release:
March 2, 2021
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
New York – In honor of Women’s History Month (March), PETA (an organization founded by a woman and led by women) chose its own Harlem Cecely Tyson as one of five female pioneers to celebrate, and the millions who look to these women as role models may be surprised to learn that their social justice work includes protecting animals.
The Hollywood Legend, who was the first black actor to star in a television series; first black woman to receive an Emmy Award for Lead Actress in a Television Film; and the first black actress to win an honorary Oscar, Tyson was also one of the early adopters of meatless food. In her last interview, conducted on the eve of her death at the age of 96, she noted that thanks to this choice she will remain strong and healthy throughout her life, and said that it was the murder of non-violence fighter Martin Luther King Jr. that inspired her to keeping the violence off her own plate.
“Cicely Tyson understood that everyone – no matter what skin they wear, whether they have fur, fins or feathers – deserves to live without exploitation, suffering and discrimination,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA encourages everyone to respect its heritage by demonstrating solidarity between different species and condemning the subordination of any living being.”
PETA – whose motto, in particular, is that “animals are not ours to eat” – notes that sexual exploitation is widespread in the meat, egg and dairy industries due to arrogance, a human superiority-oriented mentality that all others animal species are secondary. to our own. Female cows undergo artificial insemination (raped by inserting a hand into the rectum and a metal rod into the vagina), chickens are sent to slaughter as soon as their bodies wear out, and mother pigs spend their entire adult life in cramped metal boxes.
Other PETA award winners are educator and prison reform advocate. Angela Davis, trade union activist Dolores Huerta, feminist icon Gloria Steinemand the leader of racial justice Coretta Scott Kingwhom Tyson portrayed in the television miniseries king—All vegetarians or vegans.…
For more information please visit PETA.org or subscribe to the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram…