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PETA is urging the White House to replace chicken eggs with potatoes for its upcoming annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn.
The group shared a pun-heavy letter addressed to First Lady Jill Biden this week claiming it wanted to “respectfully suggest an appeeling [sic] way to modernize the White House Easter Egg Roll" scheduled to take place on April 1.
“Instead of promoting the deleterious factory farming and slaughter industries, will you please initiate the annual White House Potato Roll?” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk wrote in the letter.
Newkirk suggests that a potato roll wouldn't “exploit any sentient beings and would encourage empathy and kindness to animals while supporting potato farmers in the U.S.” in the letter.
“Potatoes are the most popular vegetable in the country and can be safely dyed, allowing for spudtacular traditional activities, such as rolling them, seeking for them, and decorating them. You could even hold potato sack races and games of hot potato!” the letter states.
Newkirk also cited the high egg prices brought on by the 2022 avian flu outbreak and urged Biden to "leave a legacy of kindness" by changing the annual egg roll to a potato-based tradition. Last year, PETA suggested that the White House use "reusable plastic or wooden eggs -- or even lovely painted rocks or egg-shaped balls" as an alternative for the annual event, which dates back to the Rutherford B. Hayes administration in the 1870s.
The American Egg Board donated 30,000 eggs for the White House Easter Egg Roll and an additional 30,000 to food banks located in the Washington, D.C., area in 2023.