My First Animal Rights Protest (and Fun Pictures Too!) August 12, 2008

Posted by Ryan at August 12, 2008 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 5 ) | TrackBack

You know, people often ask me "How did you get started in all of this?" and "What was the first step?"

Well, for me it began with a circus protest. Since I had signed up for the peta2 Street Team a few months earlier, I received an email in the fall of 2004 stating that the UniverSoul Circus was coming to town, and bringing their horrific record of animal abuse with them. I promptly emailed peta2, and requested posters and leaflets to hand out to attendees. I also gathered a few of my friends together, to hopefully show people the seedy underside of "The Big Top".

It wasn't the most highly attended demonstration in history (in fact, it might have been one of the lowest), but from that point forward I knew that organizing a demonstration really was as simple as can be. Needless to say, once I had one protest under my belt, I searched for opportunities to speak out again.

Since I had recently started a student group at my school, and I knew that those notorious uber-douches Ringling Bros. were coming to town, I got on Facebook and started organizing.


The feeling of success that comes with organizing these events really is incredible. Like a bus with no brakes, there was no stopping my friends and me. It didn't matter which animal abuser we were targeting:

KFC...


Dogfighters...


Heck, we even had a little fun when speaking out against the fur industry (yes, that's me on the far left)...


The point is that protesting industries that abuse animals is not only super-easy, but it can also be really fun! All you have to do is take that first step. Trust me, you'll never look back.

- Ryan!