This chapter examines the bold strategies used by an organization to challenge societal norms regarding animal rights, likening their approach to radical art. It also discusses their reliance on social media metrics for measuring campaign effectiveness while maintaining a focus on impactful animal welfare rather than donor preferences.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals founder Ingrid Newkirk has been badgering meat-eaters, fur-wearers, and circus-goers for more than 40 years. For a woman who’s leaving her liver to the president of France in her will, she sounds quite sensible when she tells Steve what we can learn from animals, why she supports euthanasia, and who’ll get her other organs.
- SOURCE:
- Ingrid Newkirk, founding president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
- RESOURCES:
- "Paradoxical Gender Effects in Meat Consumption Across Cultures," by Christopher J. Hopwood, Jahn N. Zizer, Wiebke Bleidorn, et al. (Nature Scientific Reports, 2024).
- "PETA President Bequeaths Her Rump to a Reality Show," (PETA.org, 2023).
- Animalkind: Remarkable Discoveries about Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion, by Ingrid Newkirk (2020).
- "One Last U.S. Medical School Still Killed Animals to Teach Surgery. But No More," by Darryl Fears (The Washington Post, 2016).
- "The Naked and the Dead," by Katie Glass (The Times, 2013).
- "The Betrayal of 'No-Kill' Sheltering," by Ingrid Newkirk (PETA YouTube channel, 2013).
- "The Lab-Monkey Controversy That Launched the Animal-Rights Movement," by Caroline Fraser (The New Yorker, 1993).