VP#84: Getting Personal with a Warrior for Animals! At 75(!), PETA Founder Ingrid Newkirk Is Fiercer, More Determined, and More Human than Ever.

In this landmark episode, PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk joins the Vegan Posse for a rarely intimate conversation, shortly after celebrating her 75th birthday! No discussion of the animal rights movement is complete without a mention of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Notorious for its undercover journalism, graphic videos documenting animal abuse, and willingness to disrupt commonly-held human attitudes and beliefs regarding non-human animals, PETA is loved by many and not so loved by many others - and no one bears the brunt of the pushback more than founder Ingrid Newkirk. A true warrior for animals, Ingrid happily takes the good, the bad, and the ugly in the interest of spreading the message of kindness, compassion, and basic decency toward non-human animals. Her heart still breaks into a million pieces every day at the suffering she sees, but she's not going to just sit around and cry about it. Instead, she continues to turn sorrow and anger into action for animals - and inspires the rest of us to do the same. Happy birthday, Ingrid Newkirk! Resources: PETA website: ⁠https://www.peta.org/⁠ Ingrid Newkirk website: ⁠⁠https://www.ingridnewkirk.com/⁠⁠ The amazing crab! ⁠⁠https://prime.peta.org/news/crabs-facts-take-action-for-crabs/⁠⁠ Donate to PETA: ⁠⁠https://headlines.peta.org/donate/?en_txn7=Navigation::top-donate-now-button⁠⁠ Vegan Summerfest - July 10-14, 2024, Johnestown, PA: ⁠https://summerfest.navs-online.org/⁠ Vegan novel Marrying Myself: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Marrying-Myself-Christine-Melanie-Benson/dp/1685130763/⁠ Christine Melanie Benson website: ⁠https://christinemelaniebenson.com/⁠ Crawfish "news" story: ⁠https://www.thespoof.com/spoof-news/us/144710/dairy-industry-explains-that-what-it-does-to-bulls-is-totally-different-from-bestiality⁠ Dairy & bestiality "news" story: ⁠⁠https://www.thespoof.com/spoof-news/us/144710/dairy-industry-explains-that-what-it-does-to-bulls-is-totally-different-from-bestiality⁠⁠ Cockroach "news" story: ⁠https://www.thespoof.com/spoof-news/us/126990/new-york-city-cockroach-finally-gets-his-own-apartment⁠ Ingrid Newkirk, full bio: Ingrid Newkirk was born in Surrey, England, and moved with her family to New Delhi, India, when she was 7 years old. There, she assisted her mother in volunteering for Mother Teresa and various charities, and those early experiences informed her view that it doesn’t matter who is suffering, only whether you can help them.  In 1970, Ingrid took a litter of abandoned kittens to an animal shelter—and that soon led to her resignation from the brokerage where she had worked. She then took her first job working in behalf of animals, which led to leading roles in humane law enforcement. Her experiences along the way—including finding a fox and a squirrel caught in steel traps, discovering a pig left to starve on a farm, and inspecting laboratories and circuses for the government—inspired her to launch PETA in 1980.  At that time, researchers were experimenting on chimpanzees in squalid laboratories, pigs were being slammed into walls in car-crash tests, and dogs were being shot in military exercises. But PETA's landmark victories—as well as the media attention that has accompanied them—have led to a huge change in public attitudes, and the victories keep coming.  These days, the demand for vegan food has skyrocketed (e.g., Taco Bell is testing a Vegan Crunchwrap this week), Ringling Bros. has reinvented itself as a stunning animal-free circus, nearly every major fashion brand has gone fur-free, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is no longer required to mandate archaic and cruel animal tests for new drugs. Ingrid has authored 13 books and been profiled by The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and Fortune, which dubbed her the “Mother Teresa of rabbits.” She was also the subject of HBO’s award-winning documentary I Am an Animal and was named one of Forbes’s 100 Most Powerful Women.