PETA's Billboard Depicting 'Rich Pest' Resembling Jared Kushner Goes Up Along I-83
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Several weeks after animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals announced it would be installing a billboard in Baltimore depicting a Jared Kushner-like "rich pest" and a "poor guy just trying to survive," commuters heading down Interstate 83 are seeing the group's work on display.
The billboard comes in response to President Donald Trump's comments on Twitter last month calling Baltimore "a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess," amid a feud with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Baltimore).
Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, owns numerous properties in the area through his companies. More than 160 complaints were filed against Kushner-owned properties in nearby Baltimore County since 2017 for livability issues like rats, window leaks and inadequate heating or air conditioning, a county spokesperson told WJZ last month.
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Amid the feud, PETA released an image of the billboard, which is now installed along Interstate 83 near Gay Street.
The billboard shows a Kushner look-alike sitting on a pile of money next to a rat with a small wedge of cheese. The man has a "JK" pin on his suit jacket.
PETA is using the billboard to call for humane rodent control in the city.
"It's a landlord's responsibility to rodent-proof buildings humanely by providing sturdy trash containers, clearing overgrown weeds, and sealing the holes that hungry little visitors use in their search for the delicious food that they can smell cooking," the organization said in announcing the billboard. "If over-privileged landlords neglect humane rodent control, renters pay a price and rodents—who are smart animals and good mothers and who can certainly suffer—pay the highest price of all: being killed for just trying to survive."
PETA has used controversial billboards as a way to spread a message in the past; last year, it put up a billboard urging Marylanders to stop eating crabs. Jimmy's Seafood then responded with their own billboard saying the crabs are "here to stay."