Bare in Times Square, Alicia Silverstone Says, ‘Wear Vegan’
PETA US Ad Champions Leather Made from Cactus, Apple, and Mushroom
Wearing nothing but vegan leather boots in a field of cactus, actor Alicia Silverstone greets holiday shoppers and New Year Eve’s revellers in a new nearly 9-metre Times Square ad declaring, “Don’t Be a Prick. Wear Vegan.” Everyone can choose innovative vegan leathers made from prickly pear cactus, apple, or mushroom instead of supporting industries that kill animals for their skin.
“I never, ever, get naked in TV, in film, nothin’ … But I’ve done it for PETA ’cause that’s how much it matters to me,” says the vegan star in an exclusive video interview in which she explains leather’s devastating effects on the planet. “[T]he amount of resources, water, food, oil for transport, the amount of energy that goes into making leather is extraordinary. It’s just not sustainable. The Earth can’t handle it.”
Compared with the production of plant-based leathers, that of cow leather has nearly 10 times the negative environmental impact and contributes more to climate change, water pollution, water depletion, and greenhouse gas emissions. Up to 80% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has been caused by the destruction of land in order to raise animals, and 130 different chemicals, including cyanide, are used to turn their skin into leather. In 2021, a PETA Asia investigation into Indonesian abattoirs found egregious cruelty to Australian cattle, many of whose skins are supplied to brands that export leather shoes worldwide.
A supporter since her Clueless days, Silverstone is part of a long list of celebrities – including Stefania Ferrario, Penélope Cruz, Jenna Dewan, Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood, Eva Mendes, and Olivia Munn – who have helped PETA entities to promote humane wardrobe choices.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.
For more information, visit PETA.org.au and follow the group on Facebook and Instagram.
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