“Kids rule the market through their parents; they can make change happen.”
an interview with PETA’s Ingrid Newkirk
by Robin Roth
Ingrid Newkirk, PETA president, and her new book,
50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals.
PETA’s passionate about education, empathy, and the next generation of compassionate kids. PETA president and founder Ingrid Newkirk’s new book, 50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals: Fun and Easy Ways to be a Kind Kid, features forewords by famous friends such as Kim Basinger. The book brims with ideas making it easy for kids to cultivate kindness. “Each of us can leave a positive footprint and draw others along with us,” said Newkirk, who recently spoke to Ark Online about her latest book. Kids are “not alone in caring for animals,” she believes, “but part of a huge family of kids linked around the globe.”“It is very important to arm yourself with the facts . . . and to get an across—the— board policy against the use of any live animals in schools.”
Ark Online: Many people might wonder why the president and leader of one of the largest animal rights groups in the world is writing a book geared toward children. What qualifies you to write this book, and what was your main purpose in doing so?
Ingrid Newkirk: I have spent 26 years reading children’s letters to PETA. We have raised kids in our office, and PETA has a wonderful staff of young people who keep attuned to, and keep me attuned to, what kids say about animals, and how their interests in animals can be nurtured. We have a kids’ website, PETAkids.com, comic books for kids, and have lots of communication with kids.
Ark Online: Wayne Pacelle of the HSUS told me American education needs new innovators, teachers promoting an ethic of humane education. What is your response—and PETA’s – to the new educational demands of the 21st century? Is this book part of that purpose, of promoting a humane ethic in children?
Ingrid Newkirk: I have always thought that there are few things in life more important to teach children than kindness. George Angell of the MSPCA said he was “working at the roots” when asked why he bothered to teach compassion to kids when there were so many other social issues to worry about. I think if you can nurture empathy in children it will pay off in big ways regarding their ability to relate to others no matter the differences of race, creed, color, nationality, religion, gender, and species. And we need nothing as much as we need that kind of understanding.
Ark Online: What can teachers and parents do– in the words of the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia – to “teach their children well”? How does this book meet this need or calling?
Ingrid Newkirk: This book is a great resource for kids, parents and teachers. It is full of fun activities that actually mean learning about animals, learning to care, learning what will make a difference. From starting a “Neighborhood Animal Watch” to coping with baby birds who fall from the nest; to lost cats who wander in; to a chained dog who goes without basic needs; to reading lists, web resources, video resources, getting the low down on why to spay/neuter; how to collect towels for the local shelter; why eating a vegan meal helps animals; what you can tell your aunt about donating her fur coat to an animal charity; picking up on the body language of animals at home; how to modify your language so you do not put animals down.
Ark Online: Since I started on some sort of rock and roll theme here, I’ll take it a bit further: Jim Morrison of the Doors sang we should, “Please, please listen to the children . . . they are the ones who will rule the world.” So, Ingrid, what are the children saying about the animals and how do these words translate into their—and our—future?
Ingrid Newkirk: Children are fantastic because they relate to animals mostly and are not impeded by financial and cultural restrictions on how they relate to them. For example, they know animals feel sad and lonely and it doesn’t embarrass kids to say that they do; they aren’t ashamed to share love with them; they don’t understand why animals are excluded. They are honest and unencumbered. Just as with the environmental movement, which was lead by kids teaching parents not to use hard woods and to recycle, kids can lead at the dinner table, and by saying “no” to the animal circus, and asking for a humane and more interesting alternative to dissection.
Ark Online: What are the biggest issues facing children right now in terms of the animal rights movement? Does your book address these needs? And how can kids take direct action?
Ingrid Newkirk: “50 Awesome Ways…” offers a wealth of ideas for how to get busy helping. When I was a kid I helped raise funds for a local animal shelter by putting on a play, wrote letters about animals, gave a class talk, that kind of thing, but there was so much I didn’t know. These days kids know what a vegan is, they don’t think s/he’s someone from a faraway planet or Las Vegas; they know fur is stolen from animals; they think leather is smelly; and they want homes for animals cast out onto the street, and so on. But they also want to put on plays, decorate their t-shirts with slogans, read animal stories, learning ever more; they want to start animal clubs at school, too, which is great.
Ark Online: How is PETA positioned to meet these needs, and that of humane education in general? Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots is an example of effective education—teaching habitat and respect for the world’s creatures—in dozens of countries around the world. Does PETA plan any similar programs? What is PETA doing to expand their role in humane education both in the United States and the world?
Ingrid Newkirk: We have lots of programs for teens and the biggest kids program of any animal protection organization in the world. We provide school materials, lesson plans about empathy and the Golden Rule, with exercises whereby kids can put themselves in the place of a stray dog, a baby elephant in the circus, a pigeon sunbathing in the park when someone deliberately scares them, and think about their feelings. We support “Share the World” program for younger kids as well as “An Elephant’s Life,” “A Chicken’s Life,” “A Cow’s Life,” and a “Rat’s Life” comic books. “Just Choices” is for high school kids; we have PETAkids.com website, and for the older kids we have the street team with tens of thousands of members and the peta2.com website.
Ark Online: People have criticized PETA for being too graphic, for promoting images unsuitable for children. As the mother of a four year old (a boy who has actually attended anti-dog meat protests at the Korean embassy in L.A.) I don’t want him to see horrible, graphic images that are suitably shocking for adults, in my opinion, but too haunting for kids. Is your book a method for instilling this kind of incredible shock in kids—the kind that can inspire change—without extremely graphic images?
Ingrid Newkirk: The book has jokes, cartoons (none horrible), drawings, poems, quizzes, stories, and more; none is in the least bit shocking, all are cute or dear. Kim Basinger, Summer Phoenix and Casey Affleck love the book and they are all gentle people! I do not believe kids should have the truth hidden from them but no one wants children to have nightmares, so graphic images at demos where people take kids can be a bit of a problem when the audience is the media and adults.
Ark Online: Other activist groups, on the other hand, have claimed PETA is too “welfarist” these days, and not hard core enough. Can humane education be categorized? And what is your opinion about activism and kids? How much is too much? Or not enough? Is this a question for parents to answer, or educators, or both?
Ingrid Newkirk: The book is for every child because it is about empathy, which is the core. We have always been welfarist rightists; we advocate total respect for all animals and the abolition of all cruel deeds and do not believe, as most children agree, that animals exist for our species to exploit and use for fun, food, and so on. That said, making sure that animals—in a world that doesn’t yet embrace the PETA philosophy— are cared for as well as possible within the context of their use, has always been our goal. In other words: “Please respect animals enough to leave them in peace. But if you are going to chain a dog, for example, please use a running line; please take him for walks, please give him clean water, and please make sure there is bedding to keep him warm this winter. We can’t wave a magic wand; we can only advocate for the whole and work to ameliorate the suffering on the way to the goal.
Ark Online: Activism and leadership. Do they go hand-in-hand? How can we—as teachers, parents, and activists—work to create future leaders? What is your vision of the new animal rights leader in the 21st century? In what ways has leadership changed? And what is the role of the leader in humane education?
Ingrid Newkirk: I simply believe each of us can lead by example (and not just parents—every one knows a kid—whether a nephew, godson, neighbor, friend’s child). Each of us can teach what we know, share resources like this book. Each of us can leave a positive footprint and draw others along with us. It takes all types to make a movement.
Ark Online: Any ideas to speak in schools? And how does your book’s message speak across ages and curriculums? From, let’s say, kindergarten to 12th grade? Should teachers order a class set of the book to incorporate into their curriculum?
Ingrid Newkirk: I am not planning school talks around this book, but I am hoping teachers and parents will find it useful and lessons can be planned around the chapters. It is ideal for school libraries and to help kids feel they are not alone in caring for animals, but part of a huge family of kids linked around the globe.
Ark Online: It’s been said that college campuses these days are lacking in any sort of activist ethos. My own experience as an undergraduate and graduate student attests to this claim. How can we instill an activist ethic in our kids? Does your book offer any suggestions?
Ingrid Newkirk: Yes, it does, by encouraging kids to think, to speak out, to say what is on their minds, to seek justice, and never to stand idly by if they see something cruel going on. It suggests that kids keep a list of which adults/agencies to call for help, for example.
Ark Online: The high school where I teach—Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, just outside of Los Angeles—recently gave gold fish away at their homecoming carnival; they were severely criticized for doing so (the principal has since said using animals as prizes will no longer be tolerated). Last year, senior boys at this same school released thousands of live mice at a rival high school as part of a senior “prank”. Elementary schools in the same school district routinely hatch live chickens in their infamous “incubator experiment”; the hatched chicks that survive are then seen strolling through the parking lots or show up at the local animal shelter. A high school biology teacher in the district wants to raise money so she can “buy some cats” to dissect.
Are American high schools in major need of some re-education? What can humane people and activists—teachers, educators, and students— do to protest these acts, and even prohibit their occurrence?
Ingrid Newkirk: Excellent question. We deal with schools on such issues constantly, and kids, teachers and parents are whistleblowers. It is very important to arm yourself with the facts about what happens during such events, and to get an across the board policy against the use of any live animals in schools. All such uses inevitably create misery for some of the animals and upset for some of the kids who figure that out.
Ark Online: School lunch programs are notorious nightmares for vegan and vegetarian teachers and kids. Obesity is a national epidemic in this country (I heard recently that — for the first time in history —the number of fat people on the planet surpasses the number of those who are starving). What role does food studies and nutrition play in humane education? Does your book address this issue?
Ingrid Newkirk: Yes, the book offers facts about the environmental, health and cruelty aspects of eating animal flesh, eggs, and so on. It presents alternatives in a positive way, suggesting easy-to-buy products, easy to cook recipes, snacks, and ways to make your lunchbox the envy of all.
Ark Online: Any other resources you recommend for teachers and parents interested in your book and humane education?
Ingrid Newkirk: I’d suggest a look at PETAkids.com and on PETAmall.com and PETAcatalog.com browsing for wonderful kids’ animal rights books and resources. We do have a big education division with most emphasis on teens, the street team. We go to almost every music tour all summer long and some into the winter, every skateboarding event that’s big, the works. Youth is the key. If only I had known then what I know now about animals, I would have been so much more effective. Kids rule the market through their parents; they can make change happen.
For more information on 50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals: Fun and Easy Ways to Help Kids be Kind and PETA’s activist network for kids, log on to www.PETAkids.com.