Siri Cover photo: © iStock.com/tracielouise 2020 Annual Review Dear Friends, In 2020, we celebrated PETA’s 40th year of making historic progress Twitter) took home the gold in two categories at the Telly Awards. for animals. The riveting documentary Breaking the Chain about PETA’s fieldwork made an indisputable case for the need to strengthen laws governing In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, we forcefully and the treatment of “backyard dogs.” We showed that we can change a conclusively hammered home the fact that raising and killing animals lot if we rise to the occasion, which we have done again and again! for food is the source of a litany of deadly diseases—including COVID- © PETA 19, avian flu, swine flu, SARS, MERS, and even Ebola—and that the We thank all our supporters—especially our Vanguard Society, filthy, severely crowded conditions in which animals used for clothing, Augustus Club, and Investigations & Rescue Fund members—for experimentation, and entertainment are kept are also likely breeding being part of all the victories on the following pages and for helping grounds for the next pandemic. Our incisive exposés of live-animal us challenge the human-supremacist view that we are somehow markets around the world and here at home—and our demand for superior to other animals in a way that can justify disrespecting, them to be shut down—resounded in international headlines. abusing, exploiting, and slaughtering them. With the help of Mayim Bialik, Kim Basinger, and Joanna Krupa, With kind regards, I talked to over 40 million people about my latest book, Animalkind, in which I describe how gobsmackingly wonderful animals are and how we must therefore treat them as such. To that end, PETA drove a bulldozer into the very foundations of animal experimentation. Ingrid E. Newkirk We published our Research Modernization Deal, spared thousands President of animals painful and deadly tests, helped put “Tiger King” Joe Exotic behind bars, won precedent-setting advances in our work to end the big-cat cub-petting industry, became the first group ever Board of Directors and Officers to expose the cruelty in the international alpaca trade and send Ingrid E. Newkirk, Secretary its major buyers fleeing, rendered North Carolina’s “ag-gag” law Michael P. Rodman, Chair toothless, imploded the market for products made from coconuts Jeanne Roush, Treasurer picked by captive monkeys, rescued 37 animals from hideous roadside zoos, got groundbreaking legislation passed banning the chaining of dogs in extreme weather throughout Virginia, Honorary Board of Directors and helped end the government’s blackout of Animal Welfare Nanci Alexander Edie Falco Act inspection reports. Pamela Anderson Anjelica Huston James Cromwell Bill Maher Our stirring, anti-speciesist commercial “Don’t Stand for Injustice” Alan Cumming Alicia Silverstone (which received more than 4 million views and was a top trend on Kate del Castillo Lily Tomlin The Way We believe that animals have an intrinsic worth of their Awareness is the first step. Change is the second. own, quite apart from their utility to humans, and should not be treated as commodities. Therefore, PETA’s motto is PETA also effects change for animals through shareholder “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for activism, corporate negotiations, internet marketing, entertainment, or abuse in any other way.” scientific research and analysis, funding the development of non-animal test methods, lobbying, humane education, The greatest cause of animal suffering is not malice. youth involvement, outreach to the courts and law It is ignorance. enforcement, and rescue work. The places in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the With these tools, we’re getting animal tests replaced with most intensely for the longest periods of time are inaccessible sophisticated and humane non-animal methods. We’re to most people: laboratories, industrial farms, slaughterhouses, persuading grocery and restaurant chains to require their fur farms, the entertainment industry, the pet trade, and the meat, milk, and egg suppliers to make sweeping reforms. backyards and homes of abusive animal owners. We’re pressuring designers and retailers to stop selling fur, leather, down, wool, angora, mohair, cashmere, and alpaca. The ally of ignorance is silence. We’re pushing the film, television, and advertising industries to replace the use of live great apes and other wild animals Just as mold thrives in the dark, animal abuse thrives in a with computer-generated imagery or animatronics, and we’re climate of secrecy. Just as sunlight is the best disinfectant, turning people away from live-animal shows and exhibits. public awareness is PETA’s most effective weapon against animal abuse. We’re saving animals’ lives through hands-on rescue work. We’re successfully urging law-enforcement No one does more to raise awareness of the plight of animals authorities to take cruelty to animals seriously. We’re than PETA. The video footage and other findings from our persuading the courts to give animal abusers stiffer eyewitness investigations of facilities in which animals are penalties, sentence them to anger-management training, neglected and abused draw millions of web viewers each and prohibit them from owning animals. We’re engaging year. Our media campaigns—and especially our recruitment young people and revolutionizing the way future of celebrity spokespeople—put animal issues in the headlines generations will view animals. And we’re inspiring of major media outlets every single day. Our grassroots countless people to go vegan, to buy only cruelty-free Tiger: Ethan Eliam • outreach is second to none, with demonstrators and leafleters products, and to make animal-friendly choices in all on the streets all over North America seven days a week. aspects of life. At a time when all but the most controversial voices are Ultimately, PETA strives to achieve a world in which animals drowned out in a media din, our willingness to be cheeky are respected and humans are aware of and concerned and provocative when necessary ensures that the plight about the ways in which their daily decisions affect the Goose: © CharlesLongPhotography.com of animals does not go unnoticed. lives of other sentient beings. • Cow: © Kencredible 4 The Dedication and Generosity of Members Make Our Work Possible Vanguard Society and Augustus Club members such as those below provide the roots of the financial support that enables our vital programs to grow stronger. Bev Kumari, augustus club member and peta business friend I have been a PETA supporter for many years and am proud to make sure this vital work happens today as a PETA Business Friend and in the future by being part of PETA’s Augustus Club. Carol Holub, vanguard society member PETA is one of the most effective nonprofit organizations in the world. I have been actively involved with them for over 30 years as a volunteer, philanthropist, and protester, and I have witnessed firsthand their relentless drive to reduce and eliminate animal suffering. This organization never wastes money, gives up, or is intimidated by any animal torturer. PETA will win in the end because they are ethical and right. The tide is turning—be on PETA’s side. Caryn Schall, vanguard society and augustus club member My puppy Micci changed my life. My love for her spilled over to all animals because I could see the face of Micci in each of them. I decided I would try to be the voice for all the moos, squawks, barks, oinks, quacks, and cock-a-doodle-doos out there. That’s when I discovered PETA. I have been a vocal and a financial supporter of PETA ever since. Micci would be proud. Marko Zonta and Marco Verrelli, vanguard society and augustus club members We were aware of PETA but didn’t realize how much incredible work is being done until about eight years ago when we became vegan. Our eyes were opened to animal abuse and environmental and health issues that are largely hidden. People have to begin to realize that some of our lifestyle choices inflict horrible suffering on animals—and we firmly believe that PETA is the best organization to expose those abuses and work with organizations to create meaningful and lasting change for the animals. “Test Subjects” poster: © Alex Lockwood 6 Animals Are Not Ours to Experiment On PETA has halted more animal experiments than all report—“The Research Modernization Deal”—to all muscular dystrophy experiments on dogs. It also had other animal advocacy groups put together. federal health-research agencies explaining how to pay our legal fees. and why to redirect funds from useless animal • After consulting with PETA, Bolivian engineers In 2020, PETA achieved these milestones: experimentation to humane research methods that validated a new type of ventilator for use on COVID-19 • We persuaded Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, hold real promise. patients by using a human simulator instead of testing GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer to stop using the • We released “Test Subjects,” a searing documentary it on pigs. meaningless forced swim test, in which terrified that profiles three scientists who learned from animals paddle frantically in inescapable beakers of experience that animal experimentation PETA is the largest member of water to keep from drowning. To date, we’ve persuaded impedes good science. the PETA International Science 14 companies—including seven of the top 10 • Our public records lawsuits against the Consortium Ltd., which funded pharmaceutical giants—to ban this test. University of Massachusetts–Amherst research resulting in the creation of • After working with PETA, Avon Products, Inc., stopped (UMass) and Oregon Health & Science an antitoxin produced without using all tests on animals everywhere in the world, and University resulted in animals that could be commercially Suave, Aussie, and Secret joined our list of companies the disclosure of video developed to treat diphtheria.