PETA Founder INGRID NEWKIRK turns 75: A Lifetime of Animal Advocacy

SPIRITUALITY & MINDFULNESS - The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast

How can we show more kindness, respect, and love to the animals we share this planet with? What lessons can we learn from non-human animals about living in greater harmony with nature?

Ingrid Newkirk is the Founder and President of PETA, actively leading the organization and advocating for animal rights. PETA is the largest animal rights organization in the world with more than 9 million members and supporters globally. Under her leadership, PETA has achieved significant victories, such as ending car-crash tests on animals, pushing major fashion brands to go fur-free, influencing Ringling Bros. to become an animal-free circus, and helping pass a law that allows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve new medications without conducting cruel tests on animals. Ingrid has written 14 books and has been featured in major publications like The New Yorker and The Guardian, and was the subject of HBO's documentary I Am an Animal and was named one of Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women.” She joined One Planet Podcast to reflect on her 75 years as animal rights advocate.

INGRID NEWKIRK

They’re not human traits. They’re all shared traits because, of course, we all love. We all love our families, or not. We all grieve if somebody we love disappears or dies. A family dog, perhaps. A grandfather. We all feel loneliness, we all feel joy. We all really value our freedom. And so I think, if anything, looking into the eyes of the animal, even online, you see a person in there. There’s a someone in whatever the shape or the physical properties of that individual are. And that lesson is that I am you. You are me, only different. We are all the same in all the ways that count…Any living being teaches you– Look into my eyes. And there you are, the reflection of yourself.

So we need to learn from the animals how to live more gently and consume less and be more thoughtful and look out for each other in this great circle of life.

About the Founding of PETA

We formed a little group of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to show people exactly what goes on behind the scenes. Places they'll never see. They only see what's in the forefront that looks all happy and joyous and available. And then with that group, we don't want to make people sad. We don't want to make people just angry. We want to empower everybody to be an important, conscientious consumer. And through their actions and what they buy and do, they are helping animals every single day, many times a day.

On Animal Communication

We definitely know that all animals have language. They talk to each other, they understand each other, and they have interesting ways of communicating that only recently have we figured out even in part because rhinos use a breath language, fish use luminescence, squid can actually send different messages, one on one side of their body, and one on the other side of their body with color and light and patterns, so they can ward off an enemy on one side by looking very fierce, and on the other side, they can be greeting a friend. So, we do know cows have facial expressions that are so subtle you can't really notice them, and that cats and horses use their ears and their tails and their whiskers, and so on. Animals communicate with sounds, too. And we know that elephants rumble and they purr and they almost growl but they do it subsonically under the ground. And you need instrumentation to capture that sound. Humans can't really get the nuance of it. And it's not just sound. It's that a mile away, another herd of elephants hears that they don't just think oh, there's a herd over there making a noise. They know that that means there are people with guns threatening our children, or we have found water, come over here and enjoy it.

So yes, all animals have language. Birds have amazing language, and you have to sometimes capture it and slow down the recording to find all the notes that they're using in between, like dolphin clicks, that you can't hear with the human ear.

Newkirk holding a news conference on Capital Hill urging President Bush to free the Silver Spring Monkeys (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

When Ingrid was a cruelty officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, examining starving dogs whom she confiscated (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)
Ingrid at Animal Rahat, a PETA-supported organization that helps some of the most neglected animals in India (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)
An ad featuring Ingrid hanging naked at a meat market next to pigs’ bodies (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)
Ingrid pulling a horse cart in Mumbai to protest the use of horses (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)
Ingrid protesting dogs being drowned at Taiwan shelters. The drownings were stopped after this protest (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)
Ingrid being arrested after running in front of hunters to free pigeons before they were slaughtered at the Hegins pigeon shoot (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)
Ingrid marching naked to protest the sale of fur in Bonn, Germany (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

THE CREATIVE PROCESS · ONE PLANET PODCAST

Just looking at some of your protests. You've been arrested after running in front of hunters to free pigeons before they were slaughtered at the Hegins Pigeon Shoot. You've been photographed hanging naked from a meat hook at a meat market next to the bodies of pigs for the ad for the Go Vegan campaign. So you've really created these powerful images that people can't ignore. Can you discuss some of those campaigns and how they resonated with people?

NEWKIRK

I think things do change because of agitation. So agitation is vital. I mean, nobody who is in a cause should be there to win a popularity contest, whether you're working for children or the elderly or working for peace animals, it's all against nonviolence, aggression, domination, and needless cruelty and suffering. It's all for respect. So you have to be vigorous. You have to use your voice. You can use it politely, but if people don't listen, at PETA, we escalate. So we always start off with a polite letter, a polite entreaty. We always try to, as I say, do the homework. So we have the options that we put out on the table to say, look, instead of doing this, you could do that, and we will help you transition to that.

And when we began, which was 1980, there was no internet. We started by handing out leaflets on the street, having a banner at national parades, which could be seen on television, doing undercover investigations like the Silver Spring Monkey case, which made the front page of The Washington Post. And in the beginning, you could actually go on a talk show and spend an hour discussing things in depth, seriously, showing photographs, having facts and figures. Today, it's the era of the soundbite. And so very few people get a very serious look at the issues. And so you have to adjust as the media has adjusted. And that's why sometimes we use gimmickry, because just having the facts, sadly, isn't enough. You can't give people just solid facts. It's boring to them. So you have to create a ruckus and make them have a look. I mean, sometimes we're like a car crash. Nobody can avoid turning around to see what it's all about. And that's why we've used sensuality and sexuality, and we've used humor, we've used all those things, with everybody voluntarily getting in on the act to say, "I want to do something to make people aware of the reality, the horrors that animals are enduring." So that's how we've adapted.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS · ONE PLANET PODCAST

As you think about the future, what would you like young people to know, preserve and remember?

NEWKIRK

I would like them to know that if they care about being kind, then please look at the smallest animal, the biggest animal, and look at them all as your brothers and sisters, really, or your friends. They're not food. They're not shoes. They're not living test tubes. They're not here for you to be entertained by. So when you look at anything that contains an animal, their hair, their flesh, anything...a parrot on someone's shoulder that somebody says, "Do you want to have your picture taken with that parrot?" Just think, are they volunteers? If I were in their shoes or their paws or their claws, would I want to be there? And then you will know, your heart will lead you, your head will lead you as to how you should conduct yourself. And please know that if you become a vegetarian, that the mother cow whose baby ends up as meat, so please do not eat dairy, and please do not wear shoes made of her flesh. So there we are. That's my message to young people today.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interview Producer and Associate Text Editor on this episode was Sophia Reecer. Additional production support by Katie Foster.

Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).
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