PETA Founder’s ‘Naked Truth’ Tour Finale to Hit D.C. on December 13
For Immediate Release:
November 13, 2015
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk will deliver the “naked truth” about the animal rights movement—and explain 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 George Washington University.
When: Sunday, December 13, 2 p.m.
Where: George Washington University’s Marvin Center Grand Ballroom, 800 21st St. N.W. (between H and I streets N.W.), Washington
This event, which is the last stop on Newkirk’s Naked Truth international 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, pulling a horse carriage through the streets of Mumbai, or lying naked in a coffin in New York’s Times Square. In the 35 years since Newkirk co-founded PETA—whose motto states that “animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way”—the organization has grown to more than 3 million members and supporters worldwide, and she has been at the helm of groundbreaking victories, including securing the first arrest in U.S. history of an animal experimenter on cruelty charges, persuading 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 undercover investigation by PETA.
“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,” Newkirk says. “Everyone from schoolkids to former President Bill Clinton is going vegan, but there’s a breadth and depth to animal rights and PETA that’s still mysterious to many people.”
