Ingrid Newkirk, the animal rights legend and President of PETA, celebrated her 75^th birthday by urging people to take action for animals. 

Ingrid Newkirk launched PETA in 1980.

Los Angeles, July 2nd, 2024 —  PETA Co-Founder and President Ingrid Newkirk recently celebrated her 75th birthday, not with presents, cake or a vacation, but with a call to action for animals. Having spent more than 44 years leading the world’s most famous animal rights organization, having achieved great success fighting for animals exploited for food, fashion, vivisection, and entertainment, the tireless campaigner is now using her life milestone to inspire more people to get busy for animals. The webpage peta.org/75 has 75 quick and easy ways people can take concrete actions. UnchainedTV’s Jane Velez-Mitchell used the occasion to talk to Newkirk about her life and how she became one of the world’s most forceful voices for animals ever.

How It All Began

Ingrid Newkirk

Ingrid Newkirk was born in Surrey, England, and moved with her family to New Delhi, India, when she was 7 years old. There, she assisted her mother in volunteering for Mother Teresa and various charities. Those early experiences — rolling bandages for people with leprosy, stuffing toys for orphans, and rescuing stray animals — informed her view that it doesn’t matter who is suffering, only whether you can help them. However, she explained that it took some years for her to finally connect all the dots:

“I’m the poster child for slow learning because I grew up in the land of ahimsa from the time I was 7 years old until I was 16. You’d think that I would have emerged at least as a vegetarian, but I didn’t. When I went back to England, I was still a meat and potato person, and I loved organ meats and all that stuff.”

Fighting Torture Disguised as Science

In 1970, Newkirk took her first job working on behalf of animals, cleaning kennels and investigating cruelty cases. This led to leading roles in humane law enforcement, which inspired her to launch PETA in 1980. The fledgling group’s exposé of the horrors inflicted on the Silver Spring monkeys made history as the first anti-vivisection undercover investigation to result in the successful prosecution of vivisectors. She explains how that one started:

“We looked in the United States Department of Agriculture list of the laboratories that have to be registered with the government – animal experimentation places.  Right near my apartment, there was one. It was called The Institute for Behavioral Research, which sounds really grand. It turned out to be basically a warehouse down a dirt road, just an awful place. Nobody would ever find it.”

Anti-vivisection continues to be one of PETA’s main campaigns. Watch this video about PETA’s ongoing fight to stop a massive laboratory monkey-breeding facility in Georgia:

“More than 95% of drugs tested safe on other species go on to give us side effects, like anaphylactic shock, and even death, so they’re no good. Let’s move to state-of-the-art stuff.” —  Ingrid Newkirk, PETA

75 Easy Ways People Can Speak Up for Animals

Ingrid Newkirk in a PETA demonstration

To celebrate Newkirk’s birthday, PETA’s team has compiled 75 easy ways people can speak up for animals, one for each of her years. They divided them into several chapters. In the “Animals Used for Food” chapter, some of the ways listed are pledging to go vegan, encouraging five people to join PETA’s 3-Week Vegan Challenge and ordering a free vegan starter kit.

In the “Animals Used for Entertainment” chapter, you are urged to permanently boycott SeaWorld and any other establishments that exploit animals for profit. You are also warned to avoid sham rescues and seedy roadside zoos that pose as “sanctuaries.” You are encouraged to share out PETA’s tips on how to tell the difference between a real sanctuary and a fake one.

In the “Animals Used for Clothing” chapter, you’re asked to pledge to avoid any animal-derived materials. Check out PETA’s guide to vegan fashion for tips on how to dress with compassion.

Watch how three activists from PETA took over the runway at New York Fashion Week:

The website also contains 15 other specific actions for Ingrid’s 75th birthday. These are forms that can quickly be filled out regarding specific campaigns. So, let’s celebrate Ingrid… by getting busy! Ingrid is the first to say, no excuses. The animals cannot speak for themselves.

“I can’t imagine burnout because there’s so much work to be done and I have the luxury of looking back and seeing how far we’ve come.” —  Ingrid Newkirk, PETA

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