PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

Ingrid Newkirk. Ingrid Newkirk is an animal rights activist, an author, and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She is best known for the animal rights awareness campaigns she organizes on behalf of PETA, which she cofounded in 1980. As PETA's president, Ingrid has spoken internationally on animal rights issues—from the steps of the Canadian Parliament to… See full bio.

Dec 14, 2011

PETA appreciates the acknowledgment of concrete achievements (such as eliminating cruel and duplicative animal tests, or convincing corporations to modify purchasing policies related to factory farm suppliers) as well as a recognition of the public awareness generated by some tactics—like… Read More.

Story: PETA was founded in 1980 and is dedicated to establishing and defending the rights of all animals. PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment. PETA educates policymakers and the public about animal abuse and promotes kind treatment of animals. PETA is an international nonprofit charitable organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, with affiliates worldwide. PETA believes that animals have rights and deserve to have their best interests taken into consideration, regardless of whether they are useful to humans. Like you, they are capable of suffering and have an interest in leading their own lives. The very heart of all of PETA's actions is the idea that it is the right of all beings—human and nonhuman alike—to be free from harm. Our world is plagued with many serious problems, all of which deserve our attention. Cruelty to animals is one of them. We believe that all people should try to stop animal abuse whenever and wherever they can. Since 1980, PETA has campaigned to establish a global society in which humans consider the needs of what Henry Beston, noted American writer and naturalist of the mid-20th century, so beautifully called "the other nations." We uphold the rights of individual animals to be respected. For most, that means simply leaving them alone. PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. In today's world of virtually unlimited choices, animal exploitation is simply unacceptable. We can eat better, educate ourselves better, clothe ourselves better, and entertain ourselves better without torturing and killing animals. We have the power to spare animals excruciating pain by making better choices about the food we eat, the things we buy, and the activities we support.

Evidence of Impact Summary:

A very controversial organization, PETA is known for bringing into public view the plight of animals of many different kinds. They have brought many issues to the front of people's consciousness about inhumane treatment of animals even though many experts find their marketing and communication tactics a bit extreme at times.
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Organization Strengths Summary:

PETA is highly visible, consistent, and well organized. According to experts, they are very tightly focused on their mission and they are able to generate media attention to the cause.
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Areas for Improvement Summary:

A common theme with PETA is that it should tone down its marketing tactics. While creativity and visibility are PETA's key strengths, their weakness is a seeming inability to censure themselves, according to experts. Some campaigns do go too far in the public sphere as some are considered offensive.
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Ingrid Newkirk is an animal rights activist, an author, and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She is best known for the animal rights awareness campaigns she organizes on behalf of PETA, which she cofounded in 1980. As PETA's president, Ingrid has spoken internationally on animal rights issues—from the steps of the Canadian Parliament to the streets of New Delhi, India, and from the drowning tanks of Taiwan to the halls of the U.S. Congress. Ingrid was born in Surrey, England, and lived in Europe until she was 7 years old, when she and her parents moved to New Delhi, where her father worked as a navigational engineer and her mother volunteered for Mother Teresa and various charities. Ingrid's early volunteer experiences—packing pills and rolling bandages for people who were suffering from leprosy, stuffing toys for orphans, and feeding stray animals—informed her view that anyone in need, including animals, is worthy of concern. Until she was 21, Ingrid had given no thought to animal rights or even vegetarianism. In 1970, however, when she and her husband were living in Maryland and she was studying to become a stockbroker, a neighbor abandoned some kittens and Ingrid decided to take them to an animal shelter. This was a life changing-experience for Ingrid and led to her first job working in behalf of animals—cleaning kennels and investigating cruelty cases. Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation and Ingrid's experiences in that job and later on—including finding a fox and a squirrel caught in steel traps, finding a pig left to starve on a farm, and inspecting laboratories and circus acts for the government—made her realize that there needed to be an organization like PETA. Ingrid has also served as a deputy sheriff, a Maryland state law enforcement officer with the highest success rate in convicting animal abusers, the director of cruelty investigations for the second-oldest humane society in the U.S., and the chief of animal disease control for the Commission on Public Health in Washington, D.C. Under Ingrid's leadership, legislation was passed to create the first-ever spay-and-neuter clinic in Washington, D.C. She coordinated the first arrest in U.S. history of a laboratory animal experimenter on cruelty charges and helped achieve the first anti-cruelty law in Taiwan. She spearheaded the closure of a Department of Defense underground "wound laboratory," and she has initiated many other campaigns against animal abuse, including ending General Motors' car-crash tests on animals.

Dec 14, 2011

PETA appreciates the acknowledgment of concrete achievements (such as eliminating cruel and duplicative animal tests, or convincing corporations to modify purchasing policies related to factory farm suppliers) as well as a recognition of the public awareness generated by some tactics—like naked marches and colorful ad campaigns—that some people find rude or outrageous, but PETA considers necessary to shake people up and even shock them in order to initiate discussion, debate, questioning of the status quo, and of course, action. We hope that the progress made by PETA in 2011 will maintain the high rating from Philanthropedia’s reviewers. While PETA recognizes that some believe animals are better off enduring a painful death on the streets than humane euthanasia in a shelter, most citizens agree that shelters should be open to all animals in need and they support spay-neuter and promotion of shelter adoptions as the key to the tragic homeless companion animal problem. Many activists have used the information at http://www.peta.org/issues/companion-animals/rate-your-local-shelter.aspx to improve their local shelter, and PETA’s public service announcements on the issue of homeless cats and dogs are placed for free in major media outlets and reach millions each year. PETA’s goal is a society where every cat or dog has a responsible lifetime home waiting for them before they are born, as noted on our website.