Meggan Anderson, a lithe, redheaded vegan, braved overcast skies and 60-degree breezes today outside O’Neill’s in downtown Santa Cruz, clothed only in pasties, bikini bottoms and a lot of green and gold body paint. Posing in a pile of plastic vines in front of a sign that read “EXOTIC SKINS BELONG IN THE JUNGLE, NOT ON YOUR FEET,” Anderson said she was feeling fine. “It’s nothing like what the snakes and alligators go through,” she said as she changed positions, her forearm shielding her upper unmentionables from flashing cell phone cameras. “I’m happy to do it.”
Flanking the be-scaled beauty were fellow People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals members holding signs that read “Who’s Skin Are You In?”and pushing literature in to the hands of distracted gawkers. “People see a pretty naked girl, then they get hit with all this information they weren’t expecting,” says PETA skins campaigner Jenn Hunt. “They come away learning something.”
The time-honored tactic was meant to lure passers-by into learning about the cruelty involved in harvesting exotic skins for shoes and accessories, like crocodile, snake, alligator, lizard and even kangaroo. The protest, a very calm one by PETA standards, is touring California before moving on to Arizona. “We’re not protesting a particular store,” said Hunt. “In summer, you stop seeing fur, and people forget they do suffer for other skins as well.” She said alligators are raised in small, waste-filled concrete enclosures, while kangaroos, snakes and crocodiles are hunted down, flayed and killed inhumanely for their hides. “People may not see snakes and lizards as cute and cuddly, but they do feel pain,” she said.
Though it was a relatively slow day for the protesters, Anderson got her fair share of admirers, while the others bore the brunt of the skepticism. “Why would I want that?” one hot dog-eating, leather boots-wearing passer-by scoffed at the flier. “You ought to look into the destruction that goes into the rubber on your shoes. It’s not all about animals.” “It’s some about animals,” Hunt returned evenly.
