Valley man finalist in PETA Sexiest Vegetarian contest

What do Prince, Sir Paul McCartney, and Christie Brinkley have in common? Besides their enduring star power, they are all sexy vegetarians who just happen to be over 50.

Their sizzling example is what inspired PETA to expand its popular series of Sexiest Vegetarian contests to include the over-50 set. After receiving hundreds of entries from across the U.S. for its Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50 contest, PETA has narrowed the field down to 10 men and 10 women—and 52-year-old Linville resident Orv Lehman is among the finalists.

The contest is sponsored by PETA Prime — a resource for baby boomers on how to live a healthy, humane, and rewarding life.

“Unlike many of their peers who are on medication for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and impotence, older vegetarians tend to be slim and healthy — and that makes them sexier too,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “One look at our radiant finalists and it’s clear that their vegetarian diets agree with them.”

Lehman has been a vegetarian for 15 years and a vegan for 8 years. He enjoys the many health benefits of a meatless diet and grows his own shiitake mushrooms, which he sells at a local farmers market and uses as a topping on homemade vegan pizza. Lehman loves hiking and bird-watching and says that he chose a vegan lifestyle for animals, the environment, and his health.

Lehman’s photo and bio—along with profiles of the other vegetarian vixens and herbivorous hunks who were selected as finalists—are available at www.PETAPrime.org. Voting to help determine the winners will end on Monday, Dec. 6, and two winners (one female and one male) will be announced on December 10.

Each winner will receive a five-night experience at Laguna Lodge, a luxury vegetarian eco-resort in Guatemala.

For more information and to vote in the contest, please visit www.PETAPrime.org.

Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.

PETA demands Wilson Memorial cancel donkey basketball game

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

A PETA news release sent out on Thursday is demanding that Wilson Memorial High School cancel a scheduled donkey basketball game set for Wednesday, March 10.

The game is organized as a fundraiser for the school’s After Prom Celebration, according to a news item on the school’s website.

The PETA news release reports that the organization has posted an action alert on its website asking people to contact the school’s principal to urge him to “cancel the cruel event and replace it with an activity that doesn’t involve live animals.” Read more

Earth Talk | The fur industry

Dear EarthTalk: How is the fur industry doing these days? Has it been impacted by activism from PETA and similar groups?
- Clara Andrews, Edmonds, Wash.

An accurate source of up-to-date numbers is hard to come by, but it’s safe to say that the fur industry has been hurt by the ongoing and very visible anti-fur campaign—sometimes featuring top supermodels—by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and other animal rights groups. Read more