XAVIER RUDD DEFENDS ANIMALS – AND THE PLANET – IN NEW PRO-VEGETARIAN PETA AD

Acclaimed Musician Says Meat Industry’s Cruel Treatment of Animals ‘Makes No Sense’

For Immediate Release:
5 December 2012

Sydney – Standing in a lush green field next to the caption “I Am Xavier Rudd, and I Am a Vegetarian”, Xavier Rudd is featured in a brand-new ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Australia. The ad points out that every vegetarian saves the lives of more than 100 animals every year. Rudd – who has just completed an Australian tour for his new album, Spirit Bird (SideOneDummy Records) – also agreed to an exclusive interview with PETA. After describing the stench and cruel conditions that he encountered on a huge feedlot in California, where innumerable cows are jam-packed together and mired in their own faeces, Rudd talked about why he wouldn’t even consider eating meat.

“[T]he idea now of eating a chunk of meat – I can’t really even imagine it”, says Rudd in the interview. “My biggest problem with society now is the mass production and no one even considering all those lives that are being factory-farmed for human greed. Makes no sense at all, makes absolutely no sense.” He adds, “I don’t need to eat meat. I can exist very healthily without it”.

According to the United Nations, a global shift towards a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change. The report also states that the meat industry is one of the top two or three contributors to the most serious environmental problems that we face today. In addition, vegetarians are, on average, fitter and trimmer than meat-eaters are, and they’re less prone to suffering from heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and cancer.

And animals pay the ultimate price. In today’s industrialised meat and dairy industries, chickens have their throats cut while they’re still conscious, piglets have their tails and testicles cut off without being given any painkillers, fish are suffocated or cut open while they’re still alive on the decks of fishing boats and calves are taken away from their mothers within hours of birth.

Broadcast-quality video footage of animals used for meat is available here.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.au.

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