“People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals” is a very long name for an international organization that fights for animals rights. With 300 employees working for this non-profit organization and over 2 million supporters, the organization is believed to be the largest animal rights group in the world. Their slogan is well known worldwide: ”Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.”
The Profile of PETA
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals organization was first founded in March 1980. It's founders, Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco, came up with the idea of creation an organization that would fight for animal rights. The believe that animals should not be used as test subjects to various experiments and that they should not be killed in order to be eaten. The organization became well known in 1981 due to the Silver Spring monkeys case. The Institute of Behavioral Research from Silver Spring was using 17 macaque monkeys as test subjects to various experiments. Alex Pacheco visited the laboratory without anyone knowing, and took pictures of the captive monkeys and the conditions that they were living in. The evidence was then given to the police, who raided the lab and arrested the scientists. The case lasted for almost ten years making PETA a well known organization not only in the US, but all over the world. Many people decided to support this organization thus, by February 1991, PETA claimed over 350,000 members making it one of the largest organizations of it's kind.
Nowadays, the people for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is fighting for the rights of animals, supporting vegetarian options and animal friendly clothing.
