Anti-Meat Message Unpalatable Two School Principals Ban Peta’s 7-Foot Carrot Mascot
Carrots rarely make waves in Spokane school cafeterias.
But when a carrot’s 7 feet tall and wants to talk cattle abuse while students eat cheeseburgers for lunch, that’s when a couple of school principals draw the line.
Two north Spokane schools are refusing to let the mascot sponsored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals onto school grounds.
Yet, Chris P. Carrot and its vegetarian keepers vow to greet students today outside Woodridge and Balboa elementary schools, handing out buttons that plead, “Eat your veggies, not your friends.”
“Children love animals and should be told that hamburgers don’t grow in hamburger patches, that they’re really cows who are killed to make a meal,” said Lisa Lange, spokeswoman for the Virginia-based animal-rights group.
Lange has visions of Spokane children hugging the giant dancing carrot.
Balboa Principal Louis Haymond has other visions: “We wouldn’t want kids upset or throwing away their lunches or feeling sick to their stomachs.”
The letter pitching the carrot’s visit talks about cows castrated without anesthesia and chickens bred to grow so fast that their legs are painfully deformed.
“Bacon, bologna and hot dogs are really little piggies who are taken in crowded, smelly trucks to their death,” says another pamphlet.
School officials said they also are banning the mascot out of respect for parents, who should be the ones to discuss vegetarianism with their children.
“Unless it’s done appropriately and properly, it can be a poor nutritional choice,” said Associate Superintendent Cynthia Lambarth. “That’s why those decisions are best left to families.”
The mascot has toured much of the nation and came to Spokane from Canada.
The tour may continue on to Washington, D.C., Lange said.
“Now that we understand Chelsea Clinton is a vegetarian, we might end up going to the White House.”
The carrot is scheduled to be at Woodridge, 5200 W. Shawnee, before school, and at Balboa, 3010 W. Holyoke, after school.
Chris P. doesn’t talk, but an animal rights proponent traveling with it will tell students about animal cruelty and vegetarianism, Lange said.
“I don’t think it’s fair to deprive kids of an education and I think this is an education,” she said.
On Thursday, teachers cautioned students that a stranger dressed as a carrot might approach them with dead animals, animal skins or pictures of carcasses, one student said.
Haymond said he talked to teachers about the carrot, which he hopes will quietly go away.
“I told the teachers there might be someone out there in a big carrot outfit and they should just ignore him.”
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