PASADENA (CNS) - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has made the first leadership change in its 45-year history, naming Pasadena's Tracy Reiman as new president.
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Ingrid Newkirk, who founded the animal rights group in 1980 and has served as its only president, will transition to a new role as PETA's principal and remain president of the PETA Foundation, the organization announced Friday.
"I am honored to take on this leadership role at PETA, a powerhouse for animal liberation," Reiman said. "I will continue to push, persuade, and, if need be, provoke people to choose compassion over cruelty, and I will work relentlessly for the day when every rat, pig, dog, and other living being is free from exploitation."
Reiman has been with PETA since 1991, and has been executive vice president since 2007. A mother who brought her son to his first animal rights protest at a KFC when he was four weeks old, Reiman promised to champion humane science education.
"I have raised a son whose sense of justice has always included animals; a lifelong vegan, he never dissected an animal in class, and now, through the promotion of the Kind Frog and other modern alternatives to cutting up animals, I am determined to stop the generational insensitivity that led to vivisection. My motto is modernize," she said.
During her time as PETA's executive vice president, Reiman led successful campaigns to pressure some of the biggest names in business to adopt animal-friendly policies. Under her guidance, more than 450 top fashion brands - - including Calvin Klein and H&M -- have stopped selling fur, angora wool, down, feathers, or wild-animal skins. Additionally, Ringling Bros. circus stopped forcing animals to perform under the big top and SeaWorld ended its orca breeding program.
Reiman cites eliminating the sale of animal fur and skin for clothing as one the most pressing issues in the modern-day animal liberation movement, including the use of sheep for wool, which she aims to make as unacceptable as fur.
"When Tracy came to PETA, everyone wore or dreamed of owning fur, but now fur is truly dead. The face of fashion is fear, and she has seen it in the eyes of terrified sheep being punched, kicked, and cut to shreds for their wool in shearing sheds around the world," PETA said.
"Tracy Reiman gives everything she's got to get animals out of laboratory cages, circus rings, slaughterhouses, and shoppers' closets," Newkirk said. "Her creativity, drive, and fearlessness in the face of animal abuse make her the perfect leader for PETA's next chapter, and I trust that we will be celebrating major victories for monkeys, mice, sheep, birds, and who knows what other animals in the near future."
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