Michelle Cho – Peta

I was first introduced to Michelle Cho, while running on a treadmill at my gym. She was 10 feet in front of me on a television screen, and although I could not hear anything she was saying, I could see the footage of animals being killed for their fur. The images were beyond imaginable and although I knew about the process for retrieving fur, actually seeing it was beyond comprehension. The fact that humans could be so cruel to living beings who in reality, only want to be our companions, is beyond reasoning, for me anyway.

I was first introduced to Michelle Cho, while running on a treadmill at my gym. She was 10 feet in front of me on a television screen, and although I could not hear anything she was saying, I could see the footage of animals being killed for their fur. The images were beyond imaginable and although I knew about the process for retrieving fur, actually seeing it was beyond comprehension. The fact that humans could be so cruel to living beings who in reality, only want to be our companions, is beyond reasoning, for me anyway.

I just had to speak with her. I wanted more information on the suffering of animals, what is being done about it and how we could help. Of course, she was great and offered much insight into the world of Animal Rights.

ASIANCE: What is your background (ethnicity, education)?

Michelle: I am a Korean-American born and raised in Dekalb, Illinois, a small farming community 65 miles west of Chicago. My parents immigrated to the United States in 1975. I have a bachelor’s degree in performing arts management from Columbia College Chicago and was the first person in my family to graduate from college.

ASIANCE: What does your family say about your involvement with PETA?

Michelle: My older sister, Christina, went vegan and became an activist for PETA years before me, so I think my parents knew I’d eventually follow in her footsteps. Coming from a very strict, traditional Korean household, I’m sure my parents wanted us to become doctors or lawyers (not vegan animal rights activists), but they are pretty supportive now. Ultimately, they just wanted us to be happy and be able to live a life that is important to us.

ASIANCE: How did you get involved with PETA? Was that your first job out of school? Is it full-time?

Michelle: I got involved with PETA after years of listening to my sister talk about animal rights and the cruelty inherent in factory farms. I never wanted to listen! Finally, at her insistence, I watched a video on the PETA Web site about how animals are treated for food and for fur, and that was it. I went vegan and joined PETA’s activist network?volunteering to protest nude in front of fur shops and outside meat industry conventions. Eventually, I quit my job at a Los Angeles appraisal house to work full-time for PETA.

Michelle Cho for PETA

ASIANCE: What is your job title or job description? What causes do you specifically work for at PETA?

Michelle: My job title is “special projects manager.” My role here at PETA is to enlist celebrity support for our campaigns.

ASIANCE: Which public personas/celebrities are PETA supporters? Who is on PETA’s “shameful” list?

Michelle: PETA supporters include folks like Eva Mendes, Charlize Theron, Anjelica Huston, Alec Baldwin, Pink, Mickey Rourke, Tim Gunn, Simon Cowell, Khloe Kardashian, and Kimora Lee Simmons, among others.

Among celebrities who could use some schooling in animal rights is Madonna, who was just voted to the top of our annual “Worst-Dressed” list because of her penchant for wearing fur, with the Olsen twins and Elizabeth Hurley trailing just behind.

ASIANCE: What animals do you have?

Michelle: I share my apartment with a cat named Janice. One day I hope to rescue a dog.

ASIANCE: Which celebrities who originally endorsed PETA went back on their commitment?

Michelle: Celebrities normally get involved with PETA because of a passion to help animals. The only celebrity we’ve ever had to “fire” was Naomi Campbell, but considering her track record with assistants and cell phones, that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone!

ASIANCE: How do you deal with seeing animal abuse at your job every day? Does it affect you?

Michelle: PETA is best known for its undercover investigations, and yes, seeing the footage of turkeys being stomped and spit on, watching men slam baby pigs into the cement factory-farm floor, and knowing that sexual abuse of animals is more the rule than the exception on these farms and in the slaughterhouses still affects me even after all these years. But it’s also my motivation?it keeps me fighting for animal rights every day.

Watch Khloe’s PETA ad campaign video. Who can do that animals?

ASIANCE: What is something you could tell the audience that they might not know about animals?

Michelle: That for every cuff, collar, trim, or trinket made out of real fur, an animal suffered horribly. And for every hamburger or Chicken McNugget you eat, an animal experienced the worst possible life and the most painful death imaginable. Yet, the answer to ending this abuse is so easy?start at breakfast and just stop eating animals. And just stop buying fur and leather?instead, buy clothes made of natural plant-based fibers or synthetics.

ASIANCE: I’m in the processing of donating what little leather I have left and will never buy it again. What can people wear instead of leather?

Michelle: Synthetic leather is not difficult to come by at all. For shoes, belts, and other goods commonly made out of leather. I recommend stores like Target or Payless. Synthetic leather is much cheaper and better for the environment, and no animals were harmed in making it.

ASIANCE: I really like Ingrid Newkirk. I think she is doing a great job of exposing new areas of animal mistreatment not previously known: factory farming, horse slaughter, etc. Is there any area that you feel needs more attention at this time? Which area has the most lenient laws for protecting animals?

Michelle: PETA’s motto is “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment,” and that covers all the major industries that kill the largest numbers of animals. Laws aren’t on the side of animals?legislation typically caters to big business, and that’s why our message goes directly to the consumer. If you hate animal abuse, you can do your part to stop it by not wearing animals’ skin or fur, buying only products that weren’t tested by blinding rabbits, never going to the circus (especially Ringling Bros.), and becoming vegetarian!

ASIANCE: Anything else you would like to add? How can someone get involved with PETA besides just becoming a member?

Michelle: PETA has a great activist network, which you can sign up for on our Web site, PETA.org. We keep you updated on events in your neighborhood and other ways for you to get involved in our animal protection efforts.

ASIANCE: What other celebrities did you get for your “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” campaign?

Michelle: Celebrities who have posed for our “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” campaign include Eva Mendes, Holly Madison, Steve-O, Olympic athlete Amanda Beard, Christy Turlington, and Pamela Anderson, among others.

ASIANCE: I thought I read somewhere that Khloe was seen wearing fur after the ad, no?

Michelle: Absolutely not. She used to wear fur, which is why PETA reached out to her to explain what happened to animals. After only minutes of sitting down with her and showing her undercover footage of how fur is obtained from animals – she swore it off and donated her furs to our fur giveaway program which provides bedding for orphaned animals or used in educational displays.

ASIANCE: What about those rumors and ads you see that says Peta kills 50,000 animals a year or something of that nature? Want to clarify or point out the facts?

Michelle: The source of this story is the deceitfully named Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF). CCF is a front group for Philip Morris, Outback Steakhouse, KFC, cattle ranchers, and other animal exploiters who kill millions of animals every year, not out of compassion, but out of greed (see BermanExposed.org and www.ConsumerDeception.com). Not surprisingly, then, CCF’s release includes false information. This is an attempt to damage PETA by misrepresenting the situation and the number of unwanted and suffering animals PETA euthanizes because of injuries, illness, age, aggression, and other problems or because their guardians requested it or no good homes exist for them. Most of these animals are unsocialized, never having lived indoors but rather suffering outside on a chain all year round and often becoming aggressive. Please see http://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/03/why_we_euthaniz.php for an idea of what sorts of neglect and cruelty to animals we deal with every day. Most of the animals PETA U.S. took in and euthanized were not adoptable and, in fact, were taken in precisely because they were not adoptable.

PETA handled far more than 2,124 animals in 2008. In fact, we took in more than 10,000 dogs and cats, spaying and neutering all of them at low or no cost. We gave them shots, treated their wounds and illnesses, and returned them to the community. The figures that you cite also do not include the hundreds upon hundreds of dogs whose owners are indigent and whose suffering PETA works to alleviate by providing them with free food, clean water buckets, sturdy wooden doghouses, straw in the winter, and much more or the hundreds of adoptable dogs and cats we do not take in but instead refer to walk-in animal shelters and adoption centers. Since 2001, PETA’s low- to no-cost mobile spay-and-neuter clinics, SNIP and ABC, have sterilized about 50,000 dogs and cats, preventing hundreds of thousands of animals from being born, neglected, abandoned, abused, or euthanized when no one wanted them.

“To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the sufferings of man. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime.” — Romain Rolland, Nobel Prize Literature, 1915

There are some great stores and shops which offer cruelty free fashions. wwww.peta.org and www.caringconsumer.com. You can buy everything and it’s not expensive at all. There are all kinds of interesting products.

I like Pamela Anderson’s and Natalie Portman’s shoe collections. They’re even cheaper than leather and look just as great!

Visit Natalie Portman