#PETA ruffles feathers after blaming COVID-19 on eating meat

A billboard for the controversial PETA campaign
PETA

Animal-rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is embroiled in yet another online beef for ads blaming the coronavirus pandemic on meat consumption. Despite debuting in May, their steak-shaming campaign came under fire a second time after resurfacing on social media on Monday.

The Twitter pic, which boasts almost 10,000 retweets, shows a park bench emblazoned with the catchphrase “Tofu never caused a pandemic” alongside a smiling brick of bean curd. The Twitter user suggested that “PETA is actually the meat lobby trying to make veganism seem tone deaf and annoying.”

The slogan has also been featured on everything from anti-COVID face masks to a life-size tofu costume, reported Insider. The controversial commercial landed PETA in the social-media slaughterhouse.

“This is one of the least worst one’s I’ve seen from them,” said one critic. “At least they’re not comparing battery farming to the Holocaust this time.”

Another called the advert “extremely privileged,” arguing that poor people can’t afford to forgo eating meat.

PETA was quick to clap back. “Scientists have warned for YEARS about the role filthy farms & markets play in pandemics,” the org tweeted. “70% of new human diseases originate in animals. Not true of tofu.”

Addressing accusations of privilege, they told Insider in a statement that tofu is consumed globally and is cheaper than meat.

They added, “To continue eating meat while COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire among slaughterhouse workers, the vast majority of whom are immigrants and people of color, is to turn our backs on human health’s link to animal agriculture.”

Currently, despite evidence that factory farming facilitates the spread of disease, there is little proof that carnivorous diets are directly to blame for the COVID crisis, according to the Poynter Institute.

This isn’t the first time PETA has been accused of kookery. In February, the animal-advocacy group was mocked for saying “pet” is a derogatory term, while the organization was skewered in 2018 for trying to change expressions like “bringing home the bacon” to cruelty-free phrases like “bringing home the bagels.”