Event Item: PETA Founder’s ‘Naked Truth’ Tour Hits Toronto on October 3

For Immediate Release:
September 10, 2013

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Toronto — PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk will deliver the “naked truth” about the animal rights movement—and how it must reach beyond pelts and “pets” to persuade people to view all animals as fellow citizens worthy of respect—in a special address at Casa Loma on October 3:

When:   Thursday, October 3, 7:30 p.m.

Where:  Casa Loma, 1 Austin Terr., Toronto

This event, which is part of Newkirk’s Naked Truth tour, will also include a lively stage interview with questions from the audience.

Newkirk’s novel ways of defending animals command attention, whether that means spending time in a Pennsylvania prison for disrupting a pigeon shoot, taking over a fur designer’s office, or pulling a horse carriage through the streets of Mumbai. In the more than 30 years since Newkirk cofounded PETA, the organization has grown to more than 3 million members and supporters worldwide, and Newkirk has been at the helm of groundbreaking victories, including the first arrest in U.S. history of a laboratory animal experimenter on cruelty charges, recently convincing the top 10 U.S. advertising agencies to ban the use of great apes in their ads, and bringing about the largest rescue of neglected rats in U.S. history and the largest seizure of animals ever in California (following a two-month PETA undercover investigation).

In Toronto, PETA has led BMO Financial to ban glue traps, slipped “Anything but a Canadian Club” anti-seal slaughter postcards into the city’s bars, honored the Toronto District School Board for its progressive dissection-choice policy, worked with the Toronto-based parent company of Canadian KFCs to adopt an industry-leading animal welfare plan, protested the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show, and teamed up with the Lingerie Football League’s Toronto Triumph for a public demonstration encouraging the city’s shoppers to “bench fur.”

“Sometimes you have to titillate, shock, and annoy people in order to call attention to an emerging social issue, as even surprising facts are rarely enough to get people to change their habits,” says Newkirk. “Everyone from schoolkids to former President Bill Clinton is going vegan, but there’s a breadth and depth to animal rights that’s still mysterious to many people.”