Week 6: BUSY, BUSY

Monday 7/18: The Start of A Busy Week –

Based on my Monday, I could tell that the next few days were going to be busy, busy (which is awesome)! I started the day monitoring the Facebook page and working on the twitter project I was assigned. Basically, for the twitter project I had to compile a list of “dumb” tweets that mention PETA and organize them in a creative way. In addition, I began working on the PETA2 website revamp in Wordpress; the New Media class I took in the spring really prepared me for this project. Finally, my afternoon was spent doing outreach on the National Mall at our Glass Walls exhibit.

Tuesday 7/19: More Writing J -

I got assigned another writing assignment for the PETA Living blog, this time it was a DIY personal care feature on mood mists. I also spent the entire day working on the projects that I started on Monday.

Wednesday 7/20:  Press Event –

Today was a press event at our Glass Walls Exhibit on the National Mall. PETA’s president, Ingrid Newkirk was there and a congresswoman was supposed to be there, but something happened and she could not make it.  A videographer and a few photographers came and took some group shots regardless of the congresswoman not being there. I turned up my outreach energy to full blast in order to impress Ms. Newkirk J.

Thursday 7/21: Wrap Up For The Week –

I was beginning to wrap up most of my projects for the week, which felt great and I continued to work on my daily tasks, such as monitoring the PETA Facebook page and following people using the PETA twitter page.

Friday 7/22: Camera Crew –

Today was a half day and half the day was spent preparing for a camera crew from the Politico website who was doing a story on the PETA DC office. We had a couple of meetings prior to the videographer’s arrival. After he left we were allowed to leave, but I stayed a few hours longer to get a head start on my new projects that are due the following week. One was a new PETA2 website revamp assignment where I had to work on the “In The News” section of the website. My new twitter project was to compile a list of 40 nice tweets where PETA is mentioned.

Week 5: The New Marketing Intern

Monday 7/11 - Legit New Title: Today I found out that I was the one and only marketing intern and I would be reporting to the folks in the Los Angeles office. My new job duties consist of mostly social media projects and blogging. I now monitor PETA's Facebook page as well as the Twitter page.

Tuesday 7/12 - Writing For PETA Living:  I got my first blogging project today and I am so excited. It will be published on the PETA website at some point next week and I will be sure to attach a link on here. The writing assignment is vegan dining at Indian restaurants.

Wednesday 7/13 - Veggie Dog Giveaway To Congress: This outreach event got tons of press! This is because PETA's famous lettuce ladies were handing out the veggie dogs! The lettuce ladies consisted of PETA's sexiest vegetarian of the year award winner and the runner up in addition to two models. Three of them wore bikinis made out of lettuce and the sexiest vegetarian of the year wore a dress made out of lettuce. My job at this outreach event was to hold a sign that said "Free Hot Lunch" while handing out free vegetarian/vegan starter kits. The event took place right outside of the Rayburn office building, which is where the offices of the congress members are located. Some congress members did line up to get their free veggie dog and a nice look at the lettuce ladies, but the majority were interns for congress.

Thursday 7/14 - Roadtrip In Virginia: Myself and three other interns got to go sit in on an animal rights class at George Mason University. The lecture was about two hours long and it focused mostly on animals used for experimentation. Even though I thought I knew all that there was to know about animal rights, I must admit I did learn a lot. After that one of our bosses took us out for lunch at a Thai restaurant called Thailand in Fairfax, VA. Our lunch was deliciously vegan of course :) When we were done with lunch it was time for us to do our "Too Hot For Spot" demo that we created on why people should not leave their dogs in hot cars. We handed out leaflets in front of a Petco in Falls Church, Virginia with a sign that said "Hot Cars Are Not Cool For Dogs." The foot traffic was very light, so we didn't get to talk to many people. However, we did get to meet plenty of adorable pooches! After work I decided to volunteer for two additional outreach events; one was a Bastille Day event where I got to dress up as a French maid with a sign that said "Clean Your Conscience, Go Vegan!" We did our outreach right outside a block party and bar dedicated to the French independence day, so most of our foot traffic was drunk. After that I ran home and ate some vegan pizza and then around 11:30PM, myself and two other interns (who also volunteered) went to the AMC cinemas in Georgetown for the midnight screening of Harry Potter to hand out fliers about how Ronald McDonald is the real Dark Lord. Our outreach was about the evils of McDonalds and almost everyone got a real kick out it, so overall it was super successful!

Friday 7/15 - I spent most of my friday working on my social media projects and write-up on Indian restaurants, but around noon, I was asked to run down to the White House press entrance with one other intern to hold up a sign that said "Tax Meat" dressed as a pig to try to get some press attention in regards to the 2012 budget discussions. Thankfully that outreach event only lasted an hour. I was getting hot inside the pig suit!

Week 4: Veggie dogs, Dalai Lama,

Sunday 7/3 WORKING ON SUNDAY?: I know that a typical intern does not work on Sundays, but I am a very determined and passionate intern and I really want to help save animals every day that I can. So, myself and four other interns went out in front of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) with a Glass Walls Panel and a box of DVDs and Vegetarian/Vegan Starter Kits. However, I have never had a worse day. People (mostly tourists from the midwest and the south) were so horrible to us. I have never been laughed at, insulted, ignored and mocked so many times in one day. The people who did take our information did it as a big joke because we later saw a bunch of the information we handed out thrown in the trash. One horrible mean person told my friend that she was no better than a Nazi because she takes orders from our boss and he kept yelling (very loudly) that we were extremists and we wouldn't let him enjoy his hot dog. At the end of six hours of trying to educate people about what happens to animals in factory farms we felt extremely defeated and torn apart. I just kept thinking to myself that I could not let these people hold me back from doing something that I feel extremely strong about.

Monday 7/4 - Happy 4th of July, Have Some Veggie Dogs:  Obviously the PETA office was closed for the 4th of July, but that did not stop me from attempting to transform Americans into vegans and our outreach event was very successful in opening people's minds from across the country to vegan food. I needed a good positive day after my awful negative Sunday. We went out to Constitution Avenue (by the National Archives Gallery) with 50 hot veggie dogs between the hours of 1:30pm and 4pm.  There were four of us interns (two were in patriotic bikinis, but I was not one of them). The 50 veggie dogs were gone in under 15 mins and people who were not even close to being vegetarian loved them! I mean really loved them! They could not believe the veggie dogs were vegan and of course they left with a free vegan starter kit. After the veggie dogs were gone, people kept coming up and wanting to take pictures with the girls in the patriotic bikinis and of course they too left with a vegan starter kit. The day was such a success and I felt so good and motivated after. We definitely turned a few people vegan.

Tuesday 7/5: Extreme Heat + Morning City Outreach: Back to the bump and grind and normal office hours. I continued my social media project and then went out to do some city outreach for a couple of hours. The city outreach was painful because the heat was excruciating and we had no shade and people did not want to take anything from us. However, thinking about the animals kept me going strong. My office project was interesting and daunting. I had to make phone calls to a number of EMS training centers across the country and make sure that they were not using live animals in the their training classes. I am very lucking that a couple other interns were working on the same project, otherwise it would have taken an extremely long time since there were over 1,800 centers.

Wednesday 7/6: Happy 76th Birthday, Dalai Lama: What an incredible day! The morning started off as usual, morning media meeting, social media project, etc., but then I was told that I got to go to the Dalai Lama's birthday party and do some outreach. The people at the party and in the parade were so happy to see us. We gave so many DVDs and vegan starter kits away. Many people there were already vegetarians and thanked me and the other four interns for doing what we were doing. I spoke to a female monk from India who was already vegetarian, but she was curious about going vegan. I told her about the book by Dr. Colin T. Campbell called the China Study and she was very excited to read it. I know deep down that she will become vegan and I am so excited about it!

Thursday 7/7: Welcome Back To Glass Walls On The National Mall: Today marked the end of our city outreach and our return to the National Mall right in front of the Smithsonian Natural History museum where we will be coexisting with the Folk Life Festival and therefore reaching out to a wide range of people. I worked the Glass Walls exhibit from 9:30-1:30. It was a good return people were very positive and nobody said anything nasty. A majority of the people took our stuff and it was great! My highlight was that a young guy from the UK came over and was asking me my ethical reasons for being vegan for the past five years. I answered all of his questions with very strong answers and he really started thinking. I told him about the time that I went to an animal sanctuary and bonded with a pig and how the pig gave kisses and snuggled like dogs do, how the cows recognized and remembered me like my dogs recognize and remember me. He did say that he heard that chickens do not feel fear, but I forgot to tell him about the time at the animal sanctuary where a hen came running to me and hid under my legs because a rooster was chasing her. For the rest of the afternoon I worked in the office on my Twitter project and was then assigned to a Four Square project (more social media!) Lunch was vegan pizza, vegan chocolate chip cookies, vegan brownies, vegan cinnamon buns and vegan snack cakes. I think the interns were being rewarded!

Friday 7/8: Big NEWS:  Today I found out that I will be going to Mumbai, India to work for PETA in January after I graduate. I spoke to the president of PETA and the head of PETA India. I am excited beyond words!

Week 3: City Outreach

Monday 6/27:
It was nice being back in the office. I got assigned to a social media project. Basically I am assisting with our twitter account. It feels really good to see how many people out there love animals, love PETA and are vegan or vegetarian. this consumed a good chunk of my day.

Tuesday 6/28:
Today was the first day that outreach in the city really took off. I would think city people would be in too much of a rush to take literature and DVDs, but most people did. It was a positive outreach overall.

Wednesday 6/29:
I continued my social media project and worked on an excel project as well. The day was not very busy overall.

Thursday 6/30:
City outreach again was a success. We gave away tons of DVDs and vegetarian starter kits and people paid attention to our panel.

Friday 7/1:
The office was closed, but I still went out and did outreach for a few hours. I also moved into the PETA townhouse on this day. Una casa muy bonita!

Week 2: Busy. Busy.

Monday 6/20/11 - Day after my birthday: 
The morning started out like most mornings. I have really been getting used to the whole routine. At 9:15AM, we have our morning media meeting; at this meeting people who want to pitch ideas go up to a microphone and tell us what ideas they have for campaigns, etc., usually these ideas come from news sources. After the meeting I spent the morning doing some research on ideas to blog about for the PETA blog. At around 1:00PM I went to the national mall to work on the Animal Liberation project. The afternoon had some highs and lows like all the days I have worked on ALP. The lows was this really obnoxious woman walked up to our exhibit with her many kids and husband. She  walked over to the panel that reads "Slaughtered" where two photographs stand side by side. One photograph is of a pile of dead pigs and another is a pile of dead humans. She was not even fazed by the humans, but looked at the pigs and let out this obnoxious crackling laughter. Her kids walked over smiling and her husband stayed in the background. I offered her a free DVD about animal rights and a vegan recipe book, but she gave me her hand and said, "Oh please... you have to be kidding me." I just don't understand how some people could be so cruel and laugh at horrific scenes that make me want to cry.

Tuesday 6/21/11 - Fur Protest:

In the morning media meeting I learned that the pope just got a hybrid pope-mobile, an idea was thrown around about how we could reach out to the pope. I spent my morning going through news sources and searching for more blogging ideas in addition to listening to our campaign organizer call the press and send out press releases about our anti-fur demonstration. At around 11:00 in the morning we left for downtown Washington DC and set up six dog kennels on the side of the sidewalk in two layers of three; six PETA interns climbed in and put on real fur coats in the scorching heat. They all held signs, some said, "Animals Are Not Ours To Wear" and others said, "Summer Is No Fun For Animals On Fur Farms." One person stood on each side of the cage, one wore a television showing what happens on fur farms and held up a (plastic) skinned fox. The other held up another "Animals Are Not Ours To Wear" sign. I handed out flyers about cruelty free fashion on the corner of the street. About seven different media sources came to report on our demonstration including The DCist (click on the link to see their story about us.) Only two people offended me at the demo. One woman said she loves wearing fur and I just don't understand that. Another woman said that she hoped our plastic skinned fox was real so that we would get in trouble for animal abuse. I mean, really? She hopes we would get in trouble for trying to help animals, but she didn't even think twice about what the video showed about fur farmers and how they skin animals alive for fur. Overall most people walking by said that they do not wear fur and wound up taking a cruelty free fashion guide, which also explained the problems with leather in addition to the problems with fur.

Wednesday 6/22/11 - Being told to die?:

My morning was full of research and I contributed a bit of good information tot he morning media meeting. It was the afternoon that go the best of me. It was just another day doing outreach at the animal liberation project until an older woman and her family walked up and I offered them a free animal rights DVD and magazine. The woman got in my face and told me to go die. I stood there in shock. Her family walked by on both sides of me smirking. I all of a sudden got so hot and enraged. I thought for a while after that and realized that someone telling me to die means nothing to me, but being out there and helping to improve the lives of animals means the world and I will never let someone like her scare me away from what I feel is important.

Thursday 6/23/11 - I decided to be nice and do two outreach events today:

Things were fairly slow in the office after I got back from my 8:00AM animal testing outreach event, which went amazingly well. People were responsive and receptive. Only two people gave me and the other girl I was with a hard time. A man who did research on animals told me I had no idea what I was talking about (when in fact I did because I have done a lot of research on the subject) and another woman who worked for Proctor and Gamble one of the most biggest corporations who test on animals like crazy (please do not buy anything from Proctor and Gamble). The Proctor and Gamble woman told us that it is important to test on animals and I told her it is not necessary and the government does not even require it because there are so many other ways to day to test products like fake skin, cell tubes, computer robots, etc. I also told her that nine out of 10 tests on animals were proven to be ineffective when the final test was tested on humans. Basically this means that animal tests are counter productive.

We had an hour long staff meeting when we got back. The meeting was about all of the things PETA has accomplished in June and was very inspiring for me. The afternoon outreach (ALP) event went really well. We were set up at The Foggy Bottom metro station by George Washington University and there were swarms of people. I could not believe how much literature we got out.

Friday 6/24/11 - Slow morning and afternoon:
The afternoon at ALP went quite well. There were a few highlights that stood out so much for me:
1) A young intern who is working at the IRS came by and was really intrigued by the Animal Liberation Project exhibit. I gave him a Vegan Starter Kit, DVD, and Animal Liberation Project leaflet. We talked for a few minutes and he said he really wanted to help out and volunteer for PETA. I do believe he will go vegan.

2) A father and son (around 18 years old) from upstate New York, who did not seem like they were the type to be interested in animal rights came over and asked me if PETA was trying to stop all the abuse in factory farms and of course I told them what we are doing to stop it. I started talking to them about veganism and if they weren't ready to go vegan what they could do. They walked away with loads of information, a Vegan Starter Kit, a DVD and an ALP leaflet and I could tell that the son was fed up with the meat industry, he couldn't stop watching the video and looking at the exhibit.

Week 1: Hello Washington DC!

After five years of being vegan it seems weird that I have not made the decision to intern for PETA sooner.  I mean PETA has been my guiding light throughout the vegan part of my life. Now as a senior in college and about to graduate in December, the direction I want to take with my future became clear; I definitely want to work for an animal rights organization and PETA is my first choice. For the next two and a half months at this notorious non-profit organization I will be working on social media activism, blogging and participating in outreach events across our nation's capitol. This experience will not only build my activism skills, but also my communication skills, a huge plus for my multimedia journalism major.

Monday 6/13/11- Full of Tears:
My first day at PETA was all about orientation, we watched the documentary Earthlings an incredible, graphic, and heart-wrenching look on how animals are treated in the food, fashion, science, and entertainment industry, in addition to the fait of our companion animals due to breeders, pet stores, and puppy mills. I was in orientation with two other interns and there was not a dry eye in the conference room where we were watching the film. I have known about this film for a few years now, but have not been able to bring my self to watching it because I know all about the issues that go on and did not want to have to witness them. However, with that being said I am glad I watched it (it was a good character building experience) and I recommend that everyone else watches it also. The facts that the video shares are facts that we all should know. Aside from the video reinforcing my thoughts on veganism and strengthening my argument, I also got valuable documentary making knowledge out of it.
For the second half of the day we watched a film on effective communication and how to talk to the public about animal rights issues. This film was obviously a lot more bearable than Earthlings.


Tuesday 6/14/11 - First Project Assigned: 
Our intern coordinator assigned Melanie (another intern) and I a project that took quite some research. We were asked to conduct a google news search on all of the accidents involving tractor trailers carrying animals to slaughterhouses after March 1, 2011 and create an excel document based on a description of the accident, the date it occurred, where it happened, how many animals died, and the news source. The results were quite disturbing. We found eight results, all involving cattle. The worst of the stories was about an accident that took place in Hazel Crest, IL. A tractor-trailer flipped over while on an overpass and 16 of the cattle were tossed onto the highway below; those 16 died. One witness even saw one of the cattle lift up his their head right before they died.

Wednesday 6/15/11 - First Day Working on The Animal Liberation Project
This was one of my busiest days so far. The first half of the day, we were trained on what the Animal Liberation Project is, we talked a lot about people's reaction to it, we read a packet on it, we viewed the website. This was all to prepare us for the huge outreach project that we are to participate in a few days a week, all summer long. The Animal Liberation Project is a large exhibit of about four 6' X 8' panels and a large flat screen television that is all set up on the National Mall right in front of the Smithsonian. What the project does is compare the abuse of animals today with the abuse of humans in the past. The intoductory panel consists of a bunch of facts about animal rights. However, the first panel of the series is called Born Into Slavery - Child Labor and relates veal calves to child slaves. The point here is veal calves are taken away from dairy cows at birth and kept in a crate for the entire duration of their short lives. This is similar to child labor. The second panel is Slaughtered - Khemer Rouge Genocide. This compares two photographs of a mass genocide of humans and a mass genocide of pigs (who have the intellectual capacity to surpass a dog). The final panel is called Imprisoned-Iran-Iraq Conflict. The comparison is made here between zooed animals and prisoners of war in Iraq. The basic goal of the project is to educate the public about animal rights being an important subject that needs major social reform.

Thursday 6/16/11 - A Big Fish In Chinatown
Today was a slower day than usual, but the highlight was going to Chinatown and putting on a big fish costume while holding a sign that said "fishing hurts" as some of the other interns handed out pamphlets on why we should not fish or eat fish. We only did this for a couple of hours and when we returned we had an hour long meeting on effective online activism. The meeting was just a reinforcement on what I am sure most of us already knew (at least I did), Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. However the meeting definitely pumped me up and inspired me to post and tweet more.

Friday 6/17/11 - POTLUCK!
One of the best things about working in an office where everyone is vegan like me if the food. I don't have to ask questions about what is in the food because I know everything is "safe." Even the sugar for the coffee and tea says, "Vegan Cane Sugar." This is a treat for me because I used to have to bring my own packets of Sugar-In-The-Raw to school and my last internship because all they offered was the non-vegan sugar that was made using charred animal bones. I can't really cook in my hostel so I went to Whole Foods this morning and bought some broccoli raab sauteed in olive oil with big chunks of garlic and chipotle roasted sweet potatoes. The potluck was incredible, one girl made "vegan mini cheese and chive muffins" and another girl made vegan spinach dip in a bread bowl. There was plenty more food, but those were my top favorites! The afternoon spent working on the animal liberation project was very successful. We had DVDs narrated by Paul Mcartney called "Glass Walls" when people asked what they were about and I said animal rights they immediately responded by taking one and saying, "Oh I am definitely into animal rights." Some would say they volunteer at dog shelters, some said they donate money, but when I told them that the easiest and cheapest way to help animals was to go vegan, they immediately started thinking about it and it resulted with them walking away with a vegan starter kit. I would love to think that by being out there and educating people on this issue we are turning at least one person vegan. One vegan equals saving the lives of 100 animals a year.