An animal-rights group drew fierce criticism after tying a deadly shooting to a restaurant menu.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals posted on X on Thursday about a deadly shooting in Washington, D.C., and used the attack to protest a nearby restaurant's planned foie gras dinner. The organization deleted the post amid a wave of backlash, the Gateway Pundit reported.
The original message said an active shooting had occurred down the block from Mallard restaurant, which was planning a foie gras dinner that night, and that PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk was "on the scene." "An active shooting has been down the block from Mallard restaurant in SDC, which is planning a foie gras dinner tonight. PETA's Ingrid Newkirk is on the scene: Perhaps Mallard will show its neighbors the consideration it's refused to show ducks," the post read.
In a follow-up statement, PETA acknowledged deleting the tweet but offered no apology. The group said the shooting was in its neighborhood and affected its neighbors, that it had canceled a planned protest outside Mallard out of respect for the victims, and that the tweet was meant to urge the restaurant to pull foie gras from its menu to help eliminate violence.
Celebrity chef Jose Andres responded on X, "You should be so ashamed of this tweetPeople dead and injured and you tweet this?" PETA later claimed it removed the post because "supporters of foie gras," including Andres, were twisting its message, while insisting it is possible to care about more than one issue at a time and to respect all life.
The organization reposted the same statement in replies to many of the posts calling the group out. The full message said, "The shooting this morning in DC was in PETA's neighborhood, and these were our neighbors who were impacted. We canceled a protest scheduled today in front of Mallard restaurant for its despicable sale of foie gras out of respect for the victims of the shooting, and in our tweet, we were calling on the restaurant to help eliminate violence by pulling the cruel item from its menu. We took down our tweet because people who support and take part in the violent killing of ducks and geese for foie gras, like Chef Jose Andres, were twisting it, yet we encourage everyone to remember that it is possible to care about more than one thing at a time and to respect all life."
The shooting took place Thursday morning in the Logan Circle area at a VIDA Fitness location. Authorities reported that one person was killed and multiple others were injured before the gunman died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a standoff with police.
Mallard, a Southern restaurant, had scheduled a four-course foie gras dinner for that evening amid ongoing debate over a recent voter-approved ban on the dish in the District. This was not the first time PETA has deleted a post after being called out.
The same outlet previously highlighted a PETA tweet claiming President Donald Trump never did anything for lab animals or to stop animal experimentation. That post was deleted after the outlet, and others, pointed out the Trump administration's concrete actions ending certain federal experiments on dogs, cats, and monkeys, including NIH beagle lab closures and Navy testing bans that PETA itself had praised while often omitting any credit to the president.
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