People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

About PETA
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. With two million members and supporters worldwide, it claims the status of the largest animal rights group in the world. Ingrid Newkirk is its international president.

Founded in 1980, the organization is a nonprofit, tax exempt, corporation with 187 employees, funded almost entirely by its members. Newkirk has said “our goal is total animal liberation.” According to its website, PETA focuses on four core issues: factory farming, fur farming, animal testing, and animals in entertainment. Their website also says of the ownership of pets: “We at PETA very much love the animal companions who share our homes, but we believe that it would have been in the animals’ best interests if the institution of ‘pet keeping’—i.e., breeding animals to be kept and regarded as ‘pets’—never existed”, and attributes pet ownership to a “selfish desire to possess animals and receive love from them”, while not endorsing “setting them free.” PETA also campaigns against the killing of animals regarded as pests, the abuse of backyard dogs, cock fighting, dog fighting, bullfighting, hunting, and fishing. It aims to inform the public through advertisements, undercover investigations, animal rescue, and lobbying. Its slogan is “animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.”

Eli’s Involvement
Cruelty to animals is something that Eli knows shouldn’t be ignored—that’s why he agreed not only to direct and star in an anti-violence TV PSA for PETA but also to pose for an anti-violence print ad too.

“I thought that in my case in particular, my link to violence in movies could be really helpful with this campaign,” Eli says. “People see me and they expect, OK, something is going to happen, someone’s going to get beheaded … I wanted to use that attention that I get with violence in movies to draw attention to the problem of violence against animals.”