Meet Cassandra: Lettuce Lady Extraordinaire July 30, 2008

Posted by Ryan | Permalink | Comments ( 3 ) | TrackBack

Meet Cassandra. She's one of PETA's current interns, and a full-time student at the University of South Florida. She's also one of the lucky folks that has chosen to participate in our most recent "Lettuce Lady" tours, offering free gasoline to drivers who try one of our Tofurky-brand vegan sandwiches (since eating meat is the #1 cause of global warming, even more than all of the cars, boats, trains, and planes combined)!

"Naked" demonstrations are always a great opportunity for empowered and confident men and women to draw attention to a very serious issue, using a fun and upbeat approach. It also helps them reach people who may not be generally receptive to animal rights messages, since not everybody will willingly sit down and watch videos of animals being killed. With this approach though, TV, radio, and newspaper outlets have been falling over themselves to cover the events at every stop, which allows the demonstrators to broadcast the benefits of vegetarianism far and wide!

I was fortunate enough to catch up with Cassandra, right in the middle of her current demonstration tour. Here's what she had to say:

What message are you trying to get across with your demonstration?

I'm hoping that people who see our demonstration will recognize that switching to a vegetarian diet is the best thing you can do to help the environment, and to eliminate cruelty to animals. Using a fun way to attract attention to a serious issue is a great way to get people to hear our message, and if I can get even one person to stop eating animals, then I will have accomplished my goal.

What are some of the amazing foods you've been able to eat on your tour?

There is so much incredible vegan food around the country. My favorites so far have been coconut crusted chick'n, a vegan fish filet sandwich, vegan soft serve ice cream, and vegan waffles. Stuffed vegan waffles. They were packed with delicious, melty vegan cheese and tofu scramble goodness. It was like a party in my mouth.

Would you recommend that other students intern at PETA?

Most definitely. Interning has been such an amazing opportunity for me. I get to do what I am most passionate about, helping animals, while doing incredible things and having so much fun along the way. By interning at PETA, you will learn many skills to promote animal rights in your school and community, along with having the experience of a lifetime.

What kinds of things do you have planned when you return to college this fall?

There are TONS of things I have planned. The first thing I am going to do is get a group together on my campus. Through that, I am hoping to launch a campaign to ban KFC from our campus and to get better vegan options in our cafeteria. I also want to leaflet weekly, screen the movie Earthlings, and do some vegan food giveaways. Free food always goes over well on my campus.


Sounds great, Cassandra! Best of luck with the rest of the tour!

- Ryan!

P.S. - Want to get active on your campus? Drop us a line to get started!

Comments

Post a comment