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.
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.
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