PETA AU Global Issue 3

MY ROAD TO ANIMAL LIBERATION From Edinburgh to Oz

PETA Australia’s talented team includes Emily Rice, Laura Weyman-Jones, and Aleesha Naxakis, seen

Melbourne Cup protest: © NkT Photography • Lamb mulesing: © Patty Mark/ALV.org.au • Wool protest: © Steven Walker • Vegan BBQ protest: © Rob Stephenson • Koala meat protest: © Etienne Ortovent

here at our press worthy protests.

By Mimi Bekhechi Vice President, International Programs I ’ve always cared about animals, but like Dorothy at the beginning of The Wizard of Oz , I had a lot to learn. My family did, too. My grandmother had a huge heart and would nurse injured birds and squirrels back to health but also cook us beef stew. My mother has rescued and found homes for more cats than I can count, but, like me, she never gave much thought to wearing leather shoes.

In London, I met actor Stephen Berkoff, who may play bad guys but really has a heart as big as the Tin Man’s. During a protest outside Fortnum & Mason, he came up with the idea of pretending to force feed me, as ducks

a radio spot describing horses’ breakdowns and deaths and revealing that Australian horses who had been exported to South Korea were being slaughtered. We even persuaded Taylor Swift to pull out of performing at the race.

Directional sign: © iStock.com/Geerati

Following the Yellow Brick Road to Oz Eventually, I was asked to take the helm at PETA Australia. It felt a bit like Dorothy arriving in Munchkinland, where winter is summer and sheep outnumber humans, but we have an excellent team down under that has made it easy.

But one day, I peeked behind the curtain, and everything changed. I read a book about animals in laboratories and suddenly realized that all animals need protection.

and geese are force-fed for foie gras. Another success: After years of pressure, Fortnum & Mason has finally stopped selling the torture in a tin.

Are Those Ruby Slippers Vegan? When PETA UK created a corporate department, we were

discussing the fact that companies use the “genuine leather” stamp as a mark of quality when it’s really a mark of shame, and that’s when the idea for our “PETA approved vegan” logo was born. Esprit was the first to use it – and it was an instant hit. Today, over 1,000 brands proudly display it. And we’ve persuaded hundreds of brands to stop using fur, angora, cashmere, mohair, and exotic skins.

I emerged from law school determined to liberate animals. I would have happily scrubbed floors to get a job at PETA. So when I got an offer to manage PETA UK’s London office, I jumped at the chance. A Whirlwind of Activism Like Dorothy in the tornado, I was swept up in demonstrations. One day, I found myself back in Brussels where I grew up, outside the EU Parliament. My father was so proud of me for graduating from law school and happily drove me there. Little did he know that I wouldn’t be going inside to meet with parliamentarians – I would be sitting outside in a farrowing crate protesting cruelty to pigs! But a few years later, he did get to see me take a meeting with Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy Tonio Borg, during which we secured the EU ban on the sale of animal-tested cosmetics.

Australia is the world’s largest wool exporter, and we’ve made this vile industry one of PETA’s prime targets internationally. PETA Asia and PETA US have investigated dozens of shearing sheds, documenting barbaric abuses, including punching, kicking, mutilating, and throwing sheep down chutes like garbage bags. We pushed Australia to suspend the export of hundreds of thousands of sheep on filthy, severely crowded ships to the Middle East during the hottest months of the year and helped persuade New Zealand to ban mulesing – in which farmers cut chunks of flesh off lambs’ backsides. We’re determined to get Australia to ban it, too. There’s No Place Like Home … to Share Animal Rights Once animal rights “clicked” for me, I showed my brother PETA’s “Meet Your Meat” video, and he was instantly converted. Next came my mom and dad and thenmy sister. Now, we’re all vegan. My brother even makes vegan cheese, and my mom and sister use PETA’s materials to teach their students compassion for animals.

A Horse of a Different Color Growing up, I rode ponies, and I never really thought much about how the horses must’ve felt carrying us on their backs. But years later in Mumbai, my colleagues and I held a peaceful protest to highlight the plight of the horses forced to pull Victoria carriages

in the city, during which over 100 men attacked our car, banging on the windows, terrifying us. They were enraged, but they couldn’t stop us: PETA India made its case, and Mumbai banned horse-drawn Victorias. Horseracing is such a big deal in Australia that the Melbourne Cup is a state holiday. So you can imagine the uproar when we took on this cruel institution, creating

Mimi with rescued sheep Boo at Tribe Animal Sanctuary in Scotland

Angry “koalas” warn that clearing land to raise animals for meat kills native species.

If we can make the connection, anyone can. And I’ll keep working until everyone does.

Global 13

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TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM