PETA Global AU 2022 Issue 2

HOW I CAME TO ARGUE THE CASE FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS Let’s Litigate to Liberate:

A Legal Eagle Takes Flight In college, I founded a campus animal rights group that drew on PETA for all sorts of resources. I went vegan, and my mom soon followed suit. Today, even my dad – the former hunter – is mostly vegan. In 2003, I interned for PETA and participated in circus protests. My job was to wear a body-screen TV showing how animals are abused while another campaigner, covered in tiger-stripe body paint, sat in a cage. As much as I love grassroots activism, I felt driven to make an impact in another way: I went to law school specifically to become an animal rights lawyer. I attended UCLA because it had just received a million dollar grant from Bob Barker for the study of animal law. I continued helping animals however I could – I got a legal externship in the Animal Protection Unit for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, and after graduation, I did pro bono work for animals. But my heart was set on working for PETA, and now I help lead the most effective, precedent-setting animal rights litigation team in the world. From Touring With PETA’s ‘Tiger Lady’ to Taking Down the ‘Tiger King’ PETA’s lawyers are redefining and expanding how the law considers animals and applying it in creative ways to secure and protect their rights. One way we’re achieving this is by filing lawsuits against dismal

roadside zoos that violate the US Endangered Species Act (ESA).

My team and I helped dethrone Tiger King villain Tim Stark when we won a lawsuit establishing the first-ever federal precedent holding that prematurely separating tigers and lions from their mothers, declawing them, or using them in public encounters violates the ESA. Another successful lawsuit resulted in the transfer of three big cats to an accredited sanctuary in Colorado and secured a ruling prohibiting the roadside zoo from owning or possessing endangered or threatened species. My team is also taking on humane-washing, and PETA’s landmark lawsuit against Nellie’s Free Range Eggs – whose packaging depicted hens enjoying lush grassy fields – put egg sellers on notice: Even if they disingenuously advertise their eggs as “free-range,” they can’t deceptively depict hens frolicking outdoors with impunity. I’ve come a long way since I was that little girl in Idaho, but one thing hasn’t changed: I’ve never wavered in my belief that all animals have rights.

Ryan Eggold ad: © Photo – Piper Ferguson | Art director – Greg Garry | Stylist – Alison Brooks | Grooming – Ananda Tuyes • Roses: © iStock.com/Pavlo Sukharchuk

Find Caitlin's pin at PETA.org/Store . I

By Caitlin Hawks,

I was born an animal advocate. Even though I grew up in a rural community in Idaho – there was a slaughterhouse right next to the sole stoplight in town – by the age of 4, I knew I didn’t want to eat animals. We were having “cube steak” for dinner when I asked my momwhere it came from. After she told me, I sat at the table for what seemed like hours, refusing to eat. Not long afterward, I told my parents I wanted to go vegetarian. They said I had to wait until I could cook for myself; I stopped eating meat when I was 11. Deputy General Counsel for Litigation

Ryan Eggold, who plays Dr. Max Goodwin on New Amsterdam , knows the prescription for a happy life, and he teamed up with PETA to spread the word: Adopt an animal companion. In a new PETA video, Ryan describes the day he met his rescue dog, Jody: “I walked around the shelter and Jody just jumped up and was licking my hands and was like, ‘We’re friends! We're friends now. Let's hang out.’ And since that day, we’ve been pretty much inseparable.” Every time an animal is purchased from a pet store or breeder, an animal in a shelter, like Jody, loses an opportunity to find a loving home. “You’re not going to beat a rescue dog. They just have the biggest hearts in the world,” Ryan says. So, adopt, don’t shop, and then “snip” – doctor’s orders! For Ryan Eggold, Adoption Is the Only Option

Take Action Now Your donations help PETA’s attorneys take on well-funded opponents in the courtroom.

Visit PETA.org.au/Donate to make a gift.

CHEYENNE BEFORE

Passion Prevails In those intervening years, my desire to help animals

never dimmed. When I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, I wrote an angry letter to TV news anchor Ted Koppel after he made comments in favor of wolf “culls.” I joined PETA in elementary school. My parents had given me a book that contained a directory of animal protection groups, and when I read the description about PETA, I asked my dad to send in a check for my $16 membership fee. My dad used to hunt and fish and even owned a business that made shoes and bags out of deerskin – I’m pretty sure he had no idea what I’d signed up for.

When we win, we get to see the impact of our victories. PETA’s successful lawsuit resulted in the transfer of three big cats to an accredited sanctuary and secured a ruling prohibiting the roadside zoo from owning or possessing endangered or threatened species.

Take Action Now Watch Ryan Eggold’s video at PETA.org/RyanEggold and visit

Caitlin and J.T.

CHEYENNE AFTER

PETA.org/SpaySponsor to support PETA’s free and low-cost spay/neuter surgeries.

15 Global

14 LEGAL EAGLE