A Falcons Player Gets On The Good Side Of PETA

PAUL NEWBERRY

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP) — Here's a change in Atlanta: A Falcons player showing some love for animals.

Providing quite a contrast to Michael Vick's gruesome dogfighting operation, tight end Tony Gonzalez and his wife, October, posed in the nude for an anti-fur advertisement from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The newly released ad, which was photographed over the summer in Los Angeles, shows the couple sitting together on green turf for the group's "We'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign. They're following celebrities who have posed in the buff, including Dennis Rodman, Pamela Anderson and Dominique Swain, while others such as Paul McCartney and Charlize Theron have worn clothes in the campaign.

"It looks good," Gonzalez said Wednesday, glancing at the photo on a reporter's cell phone while standing at his locker. "It's something me and my wife talked about. It's something we feel very strongly about. That's a great cause, especially when you educate yourself and find out what is happening out there in the world."

The long-running PETA campaign has relied on star power in an attempt to persuade people not to wear furs or other clothing made from animal skins. The group claims that animals are often beaten, strangled, stomped, electrocuted and even skinned alive.