Getty Laura Vandervoot attends eOne Best of the Fest TIFF 2019.
Laura Vandervoort isn’t just a Hallmark star, she’s also an activist for causes that mean a lot to her. In the past, she posed nude twice for animal rights causes that were very close to her heart. Most recently, Vandervoort starred in Hallmark’s original movie, Playing Cupid.
In 2011, She Posed Nude to Bring Attention to Reptiles Being Killed for Their Skin
GettyLaura Vandervoot attends eOne Best of the Fest TIFF 2019 Celebration at Arcane on September 6, 2019.
In 2011, she posed nude for PETA as part of the organization’s Exotic Skins campaign, where her entire body was painted to look like a lizard’s skin. The photoshoot pictures that Heavy saw in articles about her campaign showed her exposed but with sensitive body parts still mostly covered. She was photographed on rocks, posing like a lizard would if it were sunning itself.
For the first photoshoot in 2011, she wore bodypaint that was supposed to be reminiscent of the scales you would see on a lizard, Yahoo Entertainment reported. PETA reported that while lizards can live up to 33 years, their lives can be cut short when they’re killed for their skin.
Vandervoort told PETA: “A lot of people think that reptiles don’t feel and they do. I think one of the reasons people feel alright with buying these exotic skins is that they feel like, these are lizards. They aren’t furry, cute creatures like the seals. And the fact is, they feel just as much as any other human being. And because they are cold-blooded creatures, they take that much longer to die, so they suffer that much longer. So I think everyone should keep in mind what it is they are buying and if it is really worth it to them.”
She shared: “Just making people aware that if you want a high-end bag of python, alligator, croc… Three or four alligators have to die for one purse. It’s not worth it and slaughtering them, thinking that they have no feelings, is completely ridiculous.”
She added that many are caught in the wild, which also hurts the ecosystem in general.
Her YouTube video interview with PETA is here, but be warned: although she’s covered in the interview, there are disturbing images of reptiles being harvested for their skin.
In 2014, She Appeared in a PETA Campaign Protesting Marine Animals in Captivity
Then in 2014, she appeared nude again for a PETA ad campaign that protested keeping marine animals in captivity. For this photoshoot, she was naked while floating in a small tank of water next to a sign that read “Welcome to SeaWorld,” PETA shared in a press release. The ad then redirected people to a website that shared details about what happens behind-the-scenes at SeaWorld. An image from the ad campaign is here, which shows Vandervoort naked but with sensitive body parts covered by her hands or by the angle she is posing in.
Vandervoort said about her decision to be in the ad campaign: “We wanted to express the confinement and the torture and the agony and the anxiety that the orcas go through in a tank, for them, the size of a tub. I had seen the movie Blackfish and not only did it make me cry … but it impacted me in a way that I wanted to do something, and I wanted to help.”
Many other stars have posed nude for PETA campaigns, Yahoo reported, including Ireland Basinger-Baldwin, Gillian Anderson, Taraji P. Henson, Alicia Silverstone, Eva Mendes, Olivia Munn, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Pink, Bethenny Frankel, Jehne Aiko, Pamela Anderson, Wendy Williams, and Nicole Williams.
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