Report: PETA attempting to buy ad space on lunch trays in Cleveland Schools

by Chad D. Baus

StateImpact.NPR.org is reported recently that the extremist anti-hunting organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, otherwise known as PETA, is trying to purchase advertising on Cleveland school district lunch trays.

From the article:

PETA Executive Director Tracy Reiman sent Cleveland school district CEO Eric Gordon a letter this week proposing to help fill the district's $13 million budget gap by opening up lunch trays to advertisements.

"I'm writing with an idea to help move your city's school budget a little bit more toward the black," Reiman says in her letter. "Open up cafeteria lunch trays (both disposable and reusable) to paid ads promoting nutritious foods and healthy behavior for kids, and allow us to run the first one, featuring an adorable chicken proclaiming, 'I Am Not a Nugget—Go Vegan.'"

Alicia Woempner, a project manager at PETA, says the group is "always on the lookout for schools or cities or municipalities that can benefit from our support while we also help animals at the same time."

Woempner says PETA hasn't gotten an official response from the district yet, but it did get word that the letter was forwarded on to Regis Balaban, the district's director of food and child nutrition services.

"We just haven't had the time to thoroughly review it," says district spokesperson Roseann Canfora. "We haven't allowed advertisements on school lunch trays in the past, but it raises some interesting questions about whether that’s a legitimate revenue source."

According to the article, this isn't the first time PETA has offered to buy advertising space.

This past spring, when Trenton, N.J. was facing a budget deficit that threatened to leave city offices without toilet paper, city officials reportedly struck a deal with PETA. According to the article, the animal rights group provided the city with a six-month supply of toilet paper — stamped with anti-meat, pro-vegan messages.

Everyone in Trenton, N.J., at least, now knows exactly what to do with PETA's anti-hunting messages. But, even setting aside questions about allowing a group our government classifies as "domestic special interest terrorists" to circulate its propaganda in our schools, there is an even more fundamental issue we need to deal with:

Cleveland's school children deserve to have something a bit softer than a disposable lunch tray when they visit the bathroom.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.