Gov. Jesse Ventura
“You need to hunt something that can shoot back at you to really
classify yourself as a hunter. You need to understand the feeling of
what it’s like to go into the field and know your opposition can
take you out. Not just go out there and shoot Bambi.” (Minneapolis
Star-Tribune)
Russell Simmons
“I think the animals are becoming more and more my focus. I would
never make a mink coat. I look at my dog, Zoe, and it’s like,
if I wore fur, I’d be wearing Zoe. I’m not all the way there
yet, but I see such abuse of the environment and animals. It’s
a personal evolution, and my evolution has affected a lot of people
around me.
“There’s no excuse for fur. Because no matter how much you
rationalize, there’s no excuse. Don’t get me wrong, I’m
not perfect, but I’m trying to be a better person.” (Interview
with PETA)
Margaret Cho
“[Fur] is really ridiculous. It’s outrageous. We’re
not living in igloos. We don’t need to trade pelts anymore. There
is this diabolical idea that fur is fashionable. It’s not. It’s
death. There’s no excuse for it.” (PETA gala)
Richard Gere
“People get offended by animal rights campaigns. It’s ludicrous.
It’s not as bad as mass animal death in a factory.” (Time
Out magazine)
Jack Osbourne
Ms. Osbourne dropped her mink scarf in a toilet and is complaining about
it.
Jack says, “Good. It belongs in the toilet. You shouldn’t
be wearing mink!” (The Osbournes)
Bill Maher
“The reason I love my dog so much is because when I come home,
he’s the only one in the world who treats me like I’m the
Beatles.” (Daily Variety)
Lauren Bush
“The most un-Texan things about me are that I’m going up
north for college—and I’m a vegetarian.” (Glamour)
Mumia Abu-Jamal
“Imagine a group of young people of all colors demonstrating at
a zoo. They are picketing, with signs blaring such messages as: ‘The
same mentality that built zoos built prisons!’ ‘Life ain’t
to be caged and exploited for $!’ and ‘All life should be
free!’ Several of them are hurt after the cops attack the protesters.
People demonstrating for animals?! Getting beaten for ‘em?! It
seemed like the silliest thing in the world. It wasn’t. It was
the early beginnings of the MOVE organization in the 1970s. I was looking
at profound sensitivity and calling it silliness.” (From a letter
to PETA)
Mary Tyler Moore
“It may take a while, but there will probably come a time when
we look back and say, ‘Good Lord, do you believe that in the 20th
century and early part of the 21st, people were still eating animals?’”
(Time)
Richard Pryor
“But for the use of physical punishment by, and fear of their
oppressors, animals would never be a part of a circus.” (PETA)
Alice Walker
“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were
not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites
or women for men.”
James Cromwell
“If any kid realized what was involved in factory farming, they
would never touch meat again. I was so moved by the intelligence, sense
of fun, and personality of the animals I worked with on Babe that by
the end of the film I was a vegetarian.” (Newark Star-Ledger)
Moby
“Intellectually, human beings and animals may be different, but
it’s pretty obvious that animals have a rich emotional life and
that they feel joy and pain. It’s easy to forget the connection
between a hamburger and the cow it came from. But I forced myself to
acknowledge the fact that every time I ate a hamburger, a cow had ceased
to breathe and moo and walk around.” (Teen People)
Ben Kenney of The Roots
“I was watching an HBO special on eating habits and different
cultures, and they showed in China how people eat cats, and I’m
really fond of cats, and I happened to be sitting on the couch with
my cat, and once I saw that, it just put everything in perspective.
If I would eat my cat—what’s the difference [between] eating
a cat or a cow? If certain animals are considered lesser than, so are
certain people—and that’s not really fair. And the root
of that is to consider life on equal terms across the board.”
(Interview with PETA)
