Drama continues to unfold in the curious case of the falling moose head. In yet another development, PETA, pointing out one woman's misfortune, is campaigning to replace stuffed animal heads with cardboard ones at restaurants across the country.
We've been following this story all week. Raina Kumra, 32, sued a trendy Lower East Side restaurant after a 150-pound stuffed moose head (with antlers) fell on her head while she was hanging out in the back room, causing a concussion and chronic pain.
Kumra claimed that the White Slab Palace exhibited negligence in the Oct. 4 incident because the establishment is supposed to ensure a safe environment for its customers. The owner of the eatery, also named in the suit, couldn't be reached for comment.
Then, in a new twist that emerged yesterday, a witness claimed that Kumra's unfortunate situation wasn't the restaurant's fault at all, but that of another patron who had allegedly been tugging on a balloon attached to the moose's antlers, which made the head fall.
And now, PETA has a solution to all of our problems. Rather than risk serious injury to customers by putting 150-pound animal heads on the wall, why not use cardboard ones?
PETA co-founder and President Ingrid Newkirk sent a letter this week to the National Restaurant Association asking its nearly 400,000 members to trade in stuffed animal heads for the cardboard or plastic variety. In return, Newkirk pledged to send the establishments fun, puffy faux animal heads to decorate their walls.
"For the new year, we want to help restaurants ditch dead décor and go friendly faux," Newkirk wrote in the letter to National Restaurant Association President Dawn Sweeney. Read the full letter.
Kumra filed the lawsuit against the Delancy St. restaurant in Manhattan Supreme Court. She's seeking unspecified damages.
Meanwhile, Newkirk suggested maybe the dead moose had a vendetta.
"Perhaps it was bad karma – the departed moose's way of taking revenge on restaurant owners," she wrote.
A spokeswoman for the restaurant association told the Daily News Sweeney hadn't yet read the letter.
