Ingrid Newkirk grew up in India, where she recalls seeing animals dying on the streets in cities like Calcutta and Mumbai. For more than a quarter century as the co-founder and president, she has led People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, universally known by its acronym, PETA, has advocated – no, proselytized for total abstinence from anything that hurts or diminishes animals, beginning with eating or wearing them.
Starting as a group of fewer than half a dozen friends, PETA is now more than 3 million members strong, making it the world’s largest animal rights organization. And it is the most controversial, not only because of the overtly absolutist approach taken by PETA, and voiced clearly by its leader, but also for their guerrilla theater tactics, whether tossing fake blood on real furs at fashion shows or picketing the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.
Ingrid’s earliest influences came as a British child living in India, but things really began in her 20s, when she was living on a farm in the US.
“A neighbor moved away and left all these cats behind, who started to wander into our garden – our yard, and to have their kittens in my van,” Ingrid said. She rounded them up and took them to the Humane Society shelter, which she assumed would be, well – humane. “I was scandalized,” she said. “I found the shelter was a terrible dump. It was filthy and the animals were afraid.”
That changed the trajectory of her life. Ingrid had been studying to become a stockbroker. Now, instead of pursuing a career on Wall St., she took a job at the shelter, caring for the dogs and cats in the way she thought they deserved. Eventually she became an Animal Cruelty Officer. But, she said, she had not become a vegan, and still ate animals and still wore them.
Spotlight on the founder of PETA Ingrid Newkirk