Local Sisters Win National Recognition for Animal Activism

For Immediate Release:
August 1, 2023

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

Twelve-year-old Dani Chianciola and her 7-year-old sister, Lana, have spent their lives advocating for animals to their friends, their family members, and even their family’s followers on social media, informing them about industries that exploit animals and how they can help end the cruelty by making kind choices. In recognition of their tireless activism, they’ve earned second place in PETA Kids’ 2023 All-Star for Animals Contest—the first pair of siblings to claim the honor.

Dani, a student at Nauset Regional Middle School, was raised vegetarian from birth and went vegan seven years ago after learning about how the dairy industry separates mother cows from their calves. Since then, she’s been kindly educating kids and adults about the benefits of going vegan—even writing an article for PETA Kids’ website about why everyone should believe in animal rights. She tells others about how animals have feelings just like humans and that taking their eggs, wool, feathers, or anything else that belongs to them is wrong. When she grows up, she wants to be an animal rights lawyer so she can continue her animal advocacy in her career.

Lana, a student at Truro Central School, has been vegan since birth and is particularly concerned about the plight of orcas held in captivity. She talks to her friends about avoiding marine parks and watching aquatic animals in their natural habitats instead, and she uses chalk art to encourage everyone to be kind to animals. Video of Dani and Lana collaborating on a poetry and art project about orcas is available here. Lana hopes someday to run an animal sanctuary with her sister and to own a vegan clothing shop where she’d sell her own upcycled items.

“Whether they’re talking to classmates about the cruelty of marine parks or encouraging their family’s online followers to go vegan, Dani and Lana are setting heroic examples for young people everywhere,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. “Animals have a pair of allies in Dani and Lana, and PETA Kids is delighted to honor them for leading us all toward a kinder future.”

Dani and Lana will receive delicious vegan cookies from San Diego–based Maya’s Cookies and personalized megaphones and T-shirts from PETA Kids. Their work on behalf of animals will be shared across the country to help inspire kind kids everywhere, including future All-Star for Animals contestants! See the full contest details here.

PETA Kids—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAKids.com or follow the group on Facebook or Instagram.