PETA's History: Compassion in Action

Before PETA existed, there were two important things that you could do if you wanted to help animals. You could volunteer at a local animal shelter, or you could donate money to a humane society. While many of these organizations did useful work to bring comfort to animals who are used by humans, they didn't question why we kill animals for their flesh or their skins or why we use them for tests of new product ingredients or for our entertainment.

PETA's founders sought to give caring people something more that they could do and to provide them ways to actively change society. They wanted to promote a healthy vegan diet and show how easy it is to shop cruelty-free. They wanted to protest, loudly and publicly, against cruelty to animals in all its forms, and they wanted to expose what really went on behind the very thick, soundproof walls of animal laboratories.

Aided by thorough investigative work, consumer protests, and international media coverage, PETA brings together members of the scientific, corporate, and legislative communities to achieve large-scale, long-term changes that improve animals' quality of life and prevent their deaths.

PETA's first case—the precedent-setting 1981 Silver Spring monkeys case—resulted in the first arrest and criminal conviction of an animal experimenter in the U.S. on charges of cruelty to animals, the first confiscation of abused laboratory animals, and the first U.S. Supreme Court victory for animals in laboratories. And we haven't stopped fighting—and winning—in our efforts for animals since.

Historic Cases
Every year, with the help of generous supporters, PETA is able to secure victories for animals. And every victory is important and celebrated, from the smallest mouse spared a horrific death in a glue trap to the thousands of cows, pigs, chickens, and fish whose lives are saved every time someone goes vegetarian.

The following are just a few of PETA's major accomplishments for animals:

• Undercover investigations of pig-breeding factory farms in North Carolina and Oklahoma revealed horrific conditions and daily abuse of pigs, including the fact that one pig was skinned alive, leading to the first-ever felony indictments of farm workers. See other victories for animals on factory farms.
• PETA's undercover investigation of a Florida exotic-animal "training school," which revealed that big cats were being beaten with ax handles, encouraged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop new regulations governing animal-training methods. See other victories for animals who are used for entertainment.
• PETA persuaded Mobil, Texaco, Pennzoil, Shell, and other oil companies to cover their exhaust stacks after showing how millions of birds and bats had become trapped in the shafts and been burned to death.
• A California furrier was charged with cruelty to animals after a PETA investigator filmed him electrocuting chinchillas by clipping wires to the animals' genitals, which caused the animals to experience the pain of a heart attack while they were still conscious. In another undercover exposé, PETA caught a fur rancher on videotape causing minks to die in agony by injecting them with weedkiller. Both farms agreed to stop these cruel killing methods. See other victories for animals who are killed for their skins.
• After two years of negotiations with—and more than 400 demonstrations against—the company worldwide, McDonald's became the first fast-food chain to agree to make basic welfare improvements for farmed animals. Burger King and Wendy's followed suit within a year's time, and within two years, Safeway, Kroger, and Albertsons had also agreed to adopt stricter guidelines in order to improve the lives of billions of animals who are slaughtered for food.
• Thanks to PETA's lengthy campaign to push PETCO to take more responsibility for the animals in its stores, the company agreed to stop selling large birds and to make provisions for the millions of rats and mice in its care. See other victories for abused companion animals.

See more precedent-setting victories for animals.

Success Stories
PETA has made groundbreaking advances for animals who are abused by corporations, governments, and individuals throughout the world, and these successes have led to dramatic improvements in the lives of millions of individual animals.

Whether by working with universities and government institutions to implement non-animal test methods, sparking a boom of "cruelty-free" product marketing and a nosedive for the U.S. fur industry, or promoting the mass availability of meat alternatives at grocery stores and gourmet restaurants, PETA has been the driving force behind many of the largest successes for animals in the last 25 years. Read more about PETA's success stories.