Christopher Merchant

The (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) Daily News Journal

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — A PETA employee who wanted a license plate declaring her love of tofu was turned down by the state due to a misinterpretation of the message, she said.

Whitney Calk, an assistant manager for youth marketing with the local PETA office, filed paperwork to get a license plate reading "ILVTOFU" when she moved back home to Murfreesboro from Virginia in 2011, she said. The text was rejected for being vulgar.

"All I'm trying to do is spread a pro-vegan message with my license plate," said Whitney, who began working for PETA about five years ago. "It just seemed logical to change my license plate to something I believed in."

Similar attempts to get such license plates by PETA staffers have been reported in Colorado, Florida and Virginia. Calk was not one of the people who applied for the plate in Virginia, she said, though she had heard other people had tried and failed to get the message they requested.

Some people on social media suggested she try another combination that was not so suggestive, like "TOFULVR," said Calk, an animal advocate with three cats. However, she decided not to send another application to the state and accepted a standard-issue license plate.

"I knew what I wanted, but I didn't want to compromise with what was written," Calk said.