People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a lawsuit against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority on Thursday, arguing the Washington, D.C., agency illegally barred the animal rights organization from advertising in the metro system.
The lawsuit objects to WMATA’s decision last year to bar three of PETA’s proposed advertisements from the D.C. metro because they violated the agency’s rule prohibiting “advertisements intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions.” PETA argued that the transportation agency and General Manager Randy Clarke are violating the nonprofit group’s First Amendment rights by preventing them from placing their advertisements.
“For reasons unknown to PETA, but that seem to only be explicable as stemming from a deeply held ideological bias against what it perceives as PETA’s underlying mission WMATA, under the leadership of Defendant Randy Clarke, appears to have instituted a blanket ban on any ads from PETA,” the complaint reads. “WMATA enforces this ban no matter how anodyne and compliant with WMATA policies PETA’s proposed ads may be.”
The three advertisements the animal rights organization proposed last year each depicted images of animals with captions and QR codes to donate to the organization. The first advertisement was an image of a cat, pig, dog, and chicken grouped together, reading “Help us help them. Donate to PETA.” The second included an image of a pig and a “vegan starter kit,” with text reading “Free Vegan Starter Kit. Join Today: Become a PETA member.” The last ad included an image of a mass group of pigs holding a flag that reads “Pigs can’t fight for pigs rights” with a caption that says “That’s why we’re here. Please donate to PETA.”
