PETA has found a new venue to push their anti-meat eating agenda: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The animal rights group, infamous for comparing cheese to rap and stirring up outrage over the clothing video game characters wear, now has its sights on the popular children’s cartoon, whose characters’ love for pizza has sparked their ire.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have always professed their love of pizza, with usual Italian meat toppings. This isn’t about to change with the animated series’ revival on Nickelodeon, unless the network caves in to PETA’s demands.
PETA, which has been outed for routinely euthanizing healthy puppies and kittens at its shelters, is calling on the cable network to have it so that the Turtles only eat vegan pizza—indisputably the worst culinary “delights” that non-meat eaters have to contend with.
In a statement to Nickelodeon, PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange asks, “Modern kids are embracing vegan food, so why shouldn’t modern Ninja Turtles?”
“Vegan pizza is popular, and it’s healthier and far kinder to animals than old-fashioned dairy cheese pizza. PETA thinks that’s something the ‘Heroes in a Half Shell’ would support,” Lange wrote.
Lange’s statement was echoed by an open letter addressed to Cyma Zarghami, the president of Nickelodeon, calling on the Turtles to abandon their love of pepperoni, ham, chicken, and tuna fish for vegan alternatives. The goal is to inspire more children into adopting a diet of soy and other “cruelty-free” vegan products.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.
