“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” – Mahatma Gandhi
Ingrid Newkirk is a well known animal rights activist and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She is also a well known author with several books published under her name. “Free the Animals” and “Making Kind Choices” are some of her most famous books. She is the co-founder of world’s largest animal rights organization (PETA). She has been working for the animal protection movement since 1972.
Newkirk was born on June 11, 1949 in Britain and lived with her family in the Orkney Islands. She moved with her family to India when she was just seven years of age. Her father was a navigational engineer in New Delhi and her mother was a volunteer for the Mother Teresa in a leper colony. Her mother had a great impact on her and imbibed the sense of care and protection for everyone irrespective of their color, breed or any other factor. Newkirk had not given any serious thoughts to animal rights until she was 21. She wasn’t even a vegetarian then. The change came in 1970 when she was living with her husband in Maryland and also studying to become a stockbroker. A neighbor had abandoned some kittens and Ingrid when saw them decided to take them to an animal shelter. This changed her life and she got devoted to working for the benefit of animals. She took her first job of cleaning the kennels and investigating criminal cases. Various other incidents also occurred that changed her whole perspective towards animals and made her realize the there needed to be an organization that would work for the welfare of animals. This was the founding step for PETA and later in 1980 the organization was co-founded.
She played a critical role in the formation of legislation to create the first ever spay-and neuter clinic in Washington, D.C. She also helped in the first arrest, in U.S. history, of a Laboratory Experimenter on the charges of cruelty and thus helped in achieving the first anti-cruelty law in Taiwan. She also initiated many more campaigns that worked against animal abuse and cruelty. This also included ending the General Motors’ car-crash tests on animals.
Since its inception, PETA has been critical in exposing horrific animal abuses in laboratories and finally landing such organizations and individuals into trouble. Many of them have closed and rest of them have reformed their testing and working methodologies so that they are not on the receiving end anymore. Ingrid Newkirk is an abolitionist and remains committed to the idea that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or used for entertainment.