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PETA Founder Protests Pork Industry Practices, Reflects on History of Activism
For more than 40 years, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has worked to change the way many people think about animals and our relationship to them.
PETA’s attention-grabbing media campaigns have raised the public’s awareness of practices like factory farming, fur production and animal testing — while also drawing backlash at times for the group’s tactics.
On Tuesday, PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk was in Chicago protesting practices in the pork industry outside The Wieners Circle hot dog restaurant.
Below is a Q&A with Newkirk in which she talks about the influences and experiences that have shaped her view of how we should treat animals.
WTTW News: You grew up in Surrey in England, and then when you were 7, your family moved to India. How did your childhood shape your view of how you think animals should be treated?
Ingrid Newkirk: It wasn’t so much India I’m ashamed to say. I had lots of vegetarian friends, and I didn’t really think much of it. There were a couple of incidents, but they’re not important. What changed was I grew up in a family where we all said we loved animals, but back then we never connected the dots, you know, what you wear, what you eat, etc. It was dogs and cats and horses and baby birds out of trees. And then I became a law officer in Maryland.
How did you come from England to India and then ultimately to Maryland in the U.S.? How did that happen?
Newkirk: My father was a navigational engineer. He’s long gone now, but we moved to Florida because of the Vietnam War. He was contracting with the American government for bombing systems. So we lived in Florida, and that’s where I met my husband. (After living in Europe for a while, they returned to the United States.)
What shaped your beliefs about animals and what led to your activism?
Newkirk: Well, I read a book called ‘Animal Liberation’ by the Australian philosopher Peter Singer. And he said: You can think you love animals, but really, they have feelings, they have emotions, they feel pain and suffering and grief and loneliness, all these things, and yet we discriminate against them. We think we’re gods and that they are trash. But really, we need to behave as if we understand that they’re sentient. And I thought that’s a revelation to me because I’ve always thought you should be kind to animals, but I never thought of the slaughterhouse, which I’ve been to now. I never thought of the steel trap. … But the pivotal thing is as an animal cruelty officer, I went to a farm in Maryland, and they had abandoned all the animals. All the animals were dead except one pig. I gave him water and put him in the truck to go to the vet. And on the way home, I thought, I wonder what I will have to eat for dinner tonight. And I realized I had defrosted pork chops. And suddenly I connected the dots, and I thought (about) that pig. I’m prosecuting people for cruelty, but the slaughterhouse is not a place to take a child to have a picnic. It’s just obviously cruel. So I became a vegetarian, and from there, I just learned a lot more and kept progressing.
When did you have the idea of founding PETA? How did that come about?
Newkirk: In 1980, exactly 44 years ago, I was working running the dog pound — that’s what they called it then — for the District of Columbia. I was the first female, the first non-veterinarian. And I wanted to revolutionize how dogs and cats were treated in the district. And someone gave me that book, ‘Animal Liberation,’ which I mentioned, and it changed my perspective, and I thought the experiences I’ve had seeing what goes on in laboratories and the slaughterhouses and fur farms — nobody knows. We all grow up at that time thinking, oh, we love animals, and yet we don’t see that stuff. So I’m going to start a group and just start giving out information about what really goes on in these places and how you can make a kind choice and a compassionate choice instead of an unthinkingly cruel choice that results in cruelty to animals.
PETA is very effective at being able to garner press attention to your cause. What kind of experience did you have in terms of developing a media strategy? Where did that come from?
Newkirk: Well, I don’t have any experience in it whatsoever, but I grew up with a lot of self-assurance and I’m very determined and I hate cruelty. I think it’s just an abomination and we can do much better. So I think human potential is something that I really challenge people to show. I think I just never cared about being embarrassed by standing up for what I believe in and speaking out, barging into places, if necessary, if you can’t make people understand just with the facts. And so that sort of appeals. We use sex, we use gimmickry, we use humor, and some of those things are just irresistible as press topics.
How do you feel about the progress that you have made in changing attitudes toward animals and how we treat them? Are you frustrated that more progress has not been made?
Newkirk: Well, there’ll never probably be world peace, either, but we chip away. And I’m thrilled to the bottom of my heart to see the things that have happened in 40 years. We’ve come from every little girl wanting a fur coat to nobody wanting fur at all. If you wanted to have an alternative to a dairy product, you would have to mix some soy powder from a co-op in water. Now you go to the supermarket, and you have this raft of variety of milk that are all plant-based. People have got the veggie burger Beyond Burger and the Impossible Burger. The clothing industry is changing. You’ve got pineapple leather and apple leather and cactus leather. And you’ve got designers like Stella McCartney who are wowing people with their design. And you’ve got synthetics that are warmer than anything we’ve had before that came off an animal’s back. So I am encouraged. The one area in which there has to be mega change and that frustrates me at the moment — but I know it will change — is (animal) experimentation. We have the National Institutes of Health just admitting last week to Congress that they sign off on things where people have been putting electrodes in monkeys’ heads and frightening them with rubber snakes for 40 years, and they’ve never bothered to see if anything comes of it, and they’ve just kept funding the experiments. So that has to change. That’s a big thing.
Today is your 75th birthday. What brings you to Illinois?
Newkirk: I’m meeting with a lot of members tomorrow. We have a strategy meeting, we have a dinner. But I thought I’d get here a day early because Chicago, of course, was once known as the hog butcher to the world. And now that that’s gone and all the millions of pigs who were slaughtered here, I wanted to just make a statement with our pig trucks. Drive it to a hot dog place. Have people hear the sounds of the pigs, because it was a little pig that changed my life, changed my diet. And we’ll be giving out vegan hot dogs this afternoon. So I thought it was a nice way to spend my birthday before I get to business tomorrow.
So, on your 75th birthday, how are you feeling about the future? Are you optimistic that we’re on a track that will get us to a world of less cruelty?
Newkirk: Absolutely, because I have the luxury of being able to look back and see how much change has happened. And so I know we’re on a trajectory … and so, yes, there won’t be world peace and there won’t be the end of world cruelty. But we’re doing well. We’re on the right track, and people are more aware. The choices are greater. It’s really a good thing.
