PETA's Vital Work

We believe that animals have an intrinsic worth of their own, quite apart from their utility to humans, and should not be treated as commodities. Therefore, PETA’s motto is “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.”



Animals are

Not Ours to Experiment on

Animals are not ours to experiment on

In 2022, our determination to end the use of animals in laboratories paid off with monumental wins:

We thank James Cromwell, Casey Affleck, Patricia De León, Kate del Castillo, Edie Falco, Davey Havok, Joaquin Phoenix, Bill Maher, Cassandra Peterson, Kim Basinger, Daisy Ridley, and Lily Tomlin for helping to expose cruel experiments on animals.

Animals are

Not Ours to Eat

Animals are not ours to eat

PETA exposes what happens to the billions of animals who are abused and killed in the food industry every year and makes vegan eating easy and popular.

In 2022, PETA Foundation lawyers went after the “humane farming” myth in response to false claims of ethical and humane treatment of hens. Class-action lawsuits in Florida and New York federal courts— building on a prior PETA Foundation victory against the same company—are moving forward against Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs, owner of Nellie’s Free Range Eggs, while a lawsuit filed by PETA Foundation lawyers against Texas-based Vital Farms Inc. is pending, since having won an important legal victory at the motion-to-dismiss stage. Based on our investigative evidence, 12 ex-Plainville Farms workers were charged with 141 counts of cruelty to turkeys  at the “humane” company’s supplier farms. PETA also helped expose the truth about Culver Duck Farms, which boasts about being “humane certified” even as a whistleblower reported that live ducks were being tossed into grinders every day.

We released undercover video footage of workers in Florida ripping claws off live stone crabs, tearing apart a live octopus, and slamming a live shark against the side of a boat then apparently carving off chunks of flesh to use as bait. Two men were charged with cruelty to animals. Our investigation into a hatchery operated by a McDonald’s supplier revealed that chicken embryos were crushed, thrown, and stepped on. And our undercover investigation into the largest duck producer in the U.S., Maple Leaf Farms, showed a worker dumping fully conscious day-old ducklings into a macerator and grinding them up.

We drew attention to egregious cruelty to animals in slaughterhouses in numerous states.  We described how the animals suffered, including a cow shot in the head six times, more than 1,000 chickens who burned to death in a horrific transport truck fire, and turkeys left to languish for more than 10 hours after a truck crash.

We also called on companies to step forward as leaders in animal welfare. PETA’s exposés of forced monkey labor in Thailand’s coconut industry compelled six major companies, including Walmart, to stop selling Chaokoh brand coconut milk.

We continued to push Starbucks to stop charging customers more for vegan milk and urged McDonald’s to offer its vegan McPlant burgers nationwide. And our presence at festivals and concerts across the country showed attendees how easy it is to ditch meat, eggs, and dairy.

We lit up social media and newsfeeds with pro-vegan ads, eye-catching demonstrations, and other creative actions. Among others, we thank Paul McCartney, Pamela Anderson, Anjelica Huston, Lizzo, Andrea Meza, Anabelle Acosta, Nikki Glaser, John Salley, Edie Falco, Francesca Farago, Angela Means, Stewart Mitchell, Alissa White-Gluz, Patricia Manterola, Tania Niebla, Pinky Cole, James Cromwell, Jermaine Dupri, Mayte García, Liz Gallardo, Kathy Moscoso, and the “ThanksVegan” influencer event for helping us draw massive media attention to the suffering of animals raised and killed for food.

Animals are

Not Ours to Wear

Animals are not ours to wear

© Kileman | Dreamstime.com

PETA is pushing society to evolve past using materials derived from animals’ skin, fur, feathers, hair, and fleece. Living, feeling beings should never be reduced to sweaters, collars, or shoes.

In a big win against the fur industry, British Columbia, Canada, is officially closing all of its mink farms. The action followed a push from PETA supporters and growing concerns about the risk that the farms pose in spreading disease.

In 2022, PETA helped two more Massachusetts communities, Brookline and Plymouth, join Wellesley and Weston in banning the retail sale of new fur products. The cities have been added to our growing list of communities across North America and around the world that have banned the sale of fur.

Recognizing that there is nothing beautiful or fashionable about fur, Elle magazine banned fur editorials and advertisements from its 45 global publications. The move follows PETA’s years of protesting fur and urging consumers to choose kinder options.

We’re showing companies the public’s distaste for fur, skins, wool, and other animal-derived materials, and companies are responding:

We continued to push Urban Outfitters brands to ditch animal-derived materials. PETA attended annual meetings, plastered the area near Urban Outfitters’ headquarters with posters, and launched our own online “store” called Urban Outraged that pretends to sell “human skin” jackets, boots, skirts, and bags. We also held our inaugural Week of Action Against Urban Outfitters, which included demonstrations by local activists across the country as well as dozens of other actions throughout the year. We won’t stop until all Urban Outfitters brands stop profiting from violence, cruelty, and fear.

We thank Phil America, Alicia Silverstone, William Valdes, Luisa Mell, Joanna Krupa, and the GRAMMY Gift Lounge for helping PETA generate awareness of the cruelty hiding in animal-derived materials.

Animals are

Not Ours to Use for Entertainment

Animals are not ours to use for entertainment

© Save the Chimps

PETA’s campaigns to end the use of animals in the entertainment industry are scoring important wins:

We thank Alec Baldwin, Alan Cumming, Joan Jett, Constance Marie, Paulina Rubio, Dereck Blanco, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Rainey Qualley, Lash Fary, Pitizion, and Gabriela Quintero for their help with these campaigns.

Animals are

Not Ours to Abuse in Any Other Way

Animals are not ours to abuse in any other way

PETA informs people about cruelty to animals, helps animals in danger, and holds abusers accountable:

  • After hearing from PETA, two more airports banned vile glue traps. We also got glue traps removed from an apartment complex, a women’s shelter, and a corporate office and persuaded Dollar Tree Canada, Family Dollar, Target, and Northern Tool + Equipment to ban the sale of these devices.
  • PETA pushed prosecutors to add cruelty-to-animals charges against arsonists responsible for wildfires in California and Oregon, resulting in convictions on those charges.
  • We helped save 62 huskies who were living in ramshackle enclosures in New Mexico; pushed officials to seize 63 animals in Pleasant Grove, California; exposed more suffering at Sun Pet, a PetSmart and Petco supplier; investigated a dog-breeding operation in Michigan, resulting in the removal of all the dogs from the facility, felony charges against the owner, and the closure of the facility; sounded the alarm about cruelty at Great Pets breeding facility in Ohio; and exposed a Texas couple who kept thousands of sugar gliders in cages teeming with roaches. Moulton Chinchilla Ranch in Minnesota lost its U.S. Department of Agriculture license and shut down after PETA exposed abuse there, and the survivors are being adopted into loving homes.
  • Following years of our campaigns, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to phase out the operation of captive-dog “blood banks.”
  • PETA fieldworkers are out every day in impoverished regions where dogs are often chained or penned outdoors. Fieldworkers rescued Charlie and Diamond, who were caged outside when the wind chill was only 21 degrees; gave a new future to Pancake, who had been chained for years and frequently deprived of food and water; and saved Miracle from a hoarding situation involving chained dogs and dead puppies. We were too late to save Minnie, whom PETA fieldworkers found dead inside a doghouse—but other dogs on the property were seized, and Minnie’s owner is facing cruelty charges.
  • We added a veterinary clinic in Ashland, Virginia, and a new mobile clinic to our growing fleet.
  • When a victim of domestic violence contacted us because she wanted to leave her abuser but not her dogs, we helped find safe places for all of them.
  • We got a Family Dollar store in New York to remove its hazardous bird-deterrent system after we were alerted to the plight of two gulls trapped in the wire-grid system on the roof of the building.
  • After hearing from PETA, Washington state canceled its annual spring bear hunt and an Islamorada, Florida, brewery nixed its iguana race.
  • To promote a better world for animals, we worked on “trash fishing” events and helped the city of Phoenix, Oregon, ban fireworks.

We received help with our anti-cruelty campaigns from Ryan Eggold, Danny Trejo, Sofía Sisniega, Lucía Méndez, Matt Judon, Paulina Goto, Ana Bárbara, Sherlyn González, and Jennifer Arenas.

Animal Rights:

The Next Generation

The next generation

PETA’s youth divisions are the number one force galvanizing young people to reject the speciesist status quo and change the future for animals.

TeachKind—PETA’s humane education division—is celebrating its 20th anniversary. It held presentations at elementary schools in northeastern North Carolina—where keeping dogs chained or penned outside 24/7 is common—including a visit by Ellie, PETA’s life-size robotic elephant. Ellie visited nearly 60 elementary schools and 13 summer camps, giving her heartwarming and educational talk to nearly 15,000 young students. TeachKind also worked with Liberation Summer author Stewart Mitchell to donate copies of his animal rights–focused book as well as vegan chicken sandwiches to fifth grade students at several schools in the New York City area, where he also spoke to them about the book and being vegan.

In an effort to end dissection in classrooms, TeachKind donated 323 SynFrogs—SynDaver’s hyper-realistic and modern synthetic frog model—and collaborated on pilot programs in seven states, including California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York.

In the wake of yet another devastating mass shooting at an elementary school, the Sandy Hook Promise added cruelty to animals to its list of critical warning signs of violence, after talks with TeachKind.

Following reports that a teen in Bucyrus, Ohio, allegedly hit a dog with his car and then shared a video on social media of himself decapitating the animal, TeachKind rushed letters to local school administrators and worked with them to incorporate compassion for animals into the curriculum.

When we heard that a group of students from Ponte Vedra High School in Florida had hung a dead shark from school rafters, we worked with the St. Johns County School District to add our “Share the World” humane education curriculum kit to its district curriculum map.

PETA’s unique virtual reality tour Abduction brought a “UFO” and an abduction experience to college campuses around the Northeast in a bid to inspire college students to feel empathy for animals in labs.

Students Opposing Speciesism (SOS) is a PETA-backed revolution led by Gen Z activists who are challenging human-supremacist norms. This year, SOS activists wearing “bloody” aprons protested at an In-N-Out restaurant in California to urge people to go vegan, raised a ruckus over the University of Central Florida’s SeaWorld ticket sales, pushed The Home Depot to end glue trap sales, rallied outside an Urban Outfitters store to urge the company to stop selling wool and other animal-derived materials, and more.

PETA Kids announced its 2022 All-Star for Animals winner— 10-year-old Nirvaan Agarwal from Edison, New Jersey. Nirvaan has advocated for animals held in a roadside zoo, volunteered to help animals in sanctuaries, and protested against the meat industry.