Naked Chicks, Scandalous Veggies and Horseshit: A Thumbnail Sketch of PETA & Food

Public Service Announcement: This story contains provocative images, including nudity, and may not be suitable for those who blush easily--or for Gordon Ramsay. PETA wants your attention. Part of their mission is to educate the public and bring awareness, thus activism and change, to inhumane treatment of animals in every context. Some chefs, and restaurants, have been on the receiving end of some of PETA's inventive education campaigns, and seemingly everyone from Martha Stewart to Bill Maher to Al Sharpton, yes--you read that right--Al Sharpton, is helping to spread PETA gospel. Their, um, colorful protests, staged at various food-related venues, are nothing if not attention grabbers.

So as a service to our readers, an exercise in cultural anthropology, and maybe a Marketing 101 lesson (Sex Sells) we present a saga of food and protest, in pictures.

Eagle-eyed (no pun intended) readers may observe that Los Angeles PETA demonstrators do not appear in this story. Washington, D.C. PETA media liason Jaime Zalac says "the only food-related protests I'm aware of in LA are McCruelty campaign demonstrations." The only explanation for this we can think of is that appearing in a PETA ad has become a matter of course for some of our high-profile residents.

Gordon Ramsay was taken to task, and given a particularly pungent bit of education, when PETA demonstrators, dressed as horses, dumped a truckload of manure in front of his restaurant, in protest of his alleged openness to the idea of eating horse meat.

PETA

Sometimes, it really is horse shit.

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First up--what could be more fitting--a naked protest in front of the Naked Chef's restaurant in London (Jamie Oliver's Fifteen). Oliver did a television program (no, really) in which he urged Brits to buy British pork, as it was raised more humanely than pigs in America. PETA took issue with that, saying that Brits should become vegetarians instead.    For more on this story, here's the BBC article about it.

PETA

PETA-style pregnant sows.

​ PETA was prepared to pay for a Superbowl commercial, but NBC said no, citing in their letter to PETA,  the "licking pumpkin... screwing herself with broccoli"  shots among their concerns and reasons for their refusal to air the veggie hardcore.

Playmate of the Year Jayde Nicole and Playmate Jo Garcia serve up tofu weenies last month in a demonstration on Capital Hill against National Hot Dog Month.

AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Wonder where they get their outfits? And are they available in radicchio?

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