Olympic Medalist Amanda Beard Bares All to Help Stop Animal Cruelty

While many Olympic athletes were worrying about the smog in Beijing and how it may affect their health and performance, U.S. Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard made time in her busy training schedule to bare her soul—and her body—to help raise awareness for a cause she is passionate about: ending unnecessary cruelty to animals.

The 26-year-old Olympic gold medalist is appearing naked in an ad designed to bring attention to the mistreatment of animals—from dogs and cats to mink and foxes—that are routinely bludgeoned and slaughtered for the international fur trade. The new ad features a side view of Beard that is more suggestive than explicit, with a tagline that reads, “Be Comfortable in Your Own Skin. Don’t Wear Fur.”

In a video interview about her decision to appear naked in the ad, Beard said, "“Seeing animals slaughtered to be worn as fashion is awful to me, so I’m definitely against wearing fur … I’d much rather go naked than ever put a dead animal on my body.”

The ad, which is part of the latest protest campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) against the fur industry, is scheduled to debut during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

By featuring an Olympic athlete and timing the provocative ad to coincide with the opening of the Olympics in Beijing, PETA is making a particularly pointed statement about the fur industry in China, which now produces most of the fur garments worn worldwide. A PETA investigation into Chinese fur farms shows how cruelly animals are treated. In the video footage, animals were strangled or beaten senseless, and were often still alive and struggling when workers started to skin them.

PETA is often criticized for using naked women (and, more recently, naked men) to attract public attention to its cause, and for some of its other anti-cruelty tactics. After watching the video of animals being skinned alive on Chinese fur farms, however, it’s hard to fault the organization for doing whatever it can to focus public attention on such atrocities.
_{Photo by PETA}

Also Read

• Basic Tenets of Animal Rights -- About.com: Animal Rights
• Animal Rights v. Animal Welfare -- About.com: Animal Rights
• Amanda Beard Interview -- About.com: Swimming
• Who’ll Stop the Rain? China to Open Chemical Umbrella Over Beijing for Olympics
• Cross-Border Pollution: A Growing International Problem