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I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA

by Jennie Richards · Published February 17, 2020 · Updated February 24, 2020

“For animals in laboratories and slaughterhouses, every day is a tragedy.”

This documentary from HBO offers a candid and introspective look at the beliefs and motives of PETA president and co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk. Founder of the world’s largest animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) president Ingrid Newkirk has dedicated her life to the liberation of animals and inspired scores of followers and the animal rights movement. The film is an honest portrayal of Newkirk’s struggles and challenges she has faced in the fight for animal rights and liberation for the past 40 years.

The film includes a personal perspective on Newkirk’s life portraying her daily routine of balancing her own life and protecting the lives of animals. It exposes her willingness to go to the extreme in her fight for animal rights. Due to her commitment and dedication to the fight for the ethical treatment of animals, Newkirk illustrates why PETA is one of the most successful animal rights organizations in the world.

The film’s director, Matthew Galkin, in an interview was asked why he chose to film this documentary, and he claimed “that it was a classic David and Goliath story of advocating on the behalf of animals. He wanted to raise awareness and encourage animal rights activism.”

The documentary offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the organization and the woman who has become the figurehead for a worldwide movement. It chronicals the history of PETA from the beginning, highlighting some of the major campaigns to liberate animals, and offers both praise and criticisms of the nonprofit over the years.

Film Length: 1 Hour, 12 Minutes

Film Premier: 2007

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Read Ingrid Newkirk’s Biography

Part 1: I Am An Animal

Quotes from the Film

“It’s just the enormity of the human population and the enormous greed, self-consideration, selfishness, thoughtlessness—especially in America—this consumerism, obsession with stuffing our faces, going to the gym, watching TV, this constant pleasing ourselves—we don’t feel or see what is going on with the majority of living beings of any species anywhere in the world. It’s just not a nice place.”

“Our goal is total animal liberation – and the day when everyone believes that animals are not ours to eat, not ours to wear, not ours to experiment on, and not ours for entertainment or any other exploitive purpose.”

“My whole adult life I have felt absolutely driven to try to get people to consider animals, no matter what they are doing, whether they are buying something to eat, or wear—I have tried to convince people to think about what that animal is going through, to put the animal in the equation.”

“There has been an undeclared war on animals, because they are vulnerable, because you can pick on them, because they can’t arm themselves, because they don’t know you’re coming. They haven’t attacked us, they haven’t done anything—yet we continue to attack them. We slaughter them. For what?”

“We fight against the enslavement of animals.”

“If people just do one thing for animals, like meals that don’t have animals in it. If everyone would just do this, it would make an enormous difference.”

“Before PETA, I don’t know if animal cruelty was even on people’s minds.”

“All you can do is try. You always achieve by trying.

“Use your voice, your body, whatever you can—for a social cause.

“For animals in laboratories and slaughterhouses, every day is a tragedy.

“The first investigation we did was in Silver Spring at the Institute for Behavioral Research. Every four months monkeys were put into immobilizing devices, then pain was inflicted on them. The animals had wounds and lived in untreated filth.”

“Once we did the laboratory investigation, PETA caught on like wildfire.”

“General Motors announced today that it will no longer use animals in crash tests, thanks to PETA.”

“You can gauge a man and an organization’s effectiveness by their enemies – and of all the animal groups in the world, PETA is the most hated by businesses that exploit and abuse animals, so I guess we’re pretty effective.”

“Ingrid Newkirk now runs the largest animals rights group in the world – and an operating budget of $25 million.” (2007)

“Since 1981, PETA has conducted over 75 undercover investigations, penetrating research labs, fur farms, circuses and slaughterhouses, all around the world.”

“Investigations are so important, because no one believes just words, you have to have pictures, you have to take people inside these places, no one wants to go inside these horrible places—the image of the abuse and cruelty is the most powerful tool we have.”

“At Con Agra Foods Slaughterhouse for Butterball Turkeys, in Ozark, Arkansas, as an undercover investigator it was my job to grab the birds by the legs, and hoist them up into the shackles upside down, over and over and over again—all day. By the end of the day, it’s 50,000 birds slaughtered every day. A lot of animals killed in one day at just one plant.”

“At Con Agra and Smithfield’s Foods, workers molest birds, and treat turkeys so cruelly at their plants. The men break the turkeys legs by handling them so roughly. Don’t ever support Butterball Turkey, and go vegan. Turkeys are severely abused in Ozark, Arkansas. One guy at the slaughterhouse was sticking his finger in the turkey’s vagina constantly before she was slaughtered, over and over again. At Con Agra – I saw a guy rip a turkey’s leg off today. These slaughterhouse workers abuse the hell out of these animals.”

“Most normal people would never work in a slaughterhouse, most people would never slit the throat of an animal 50,000 times a day.”

“The saying, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words,’–well a video of cruelty to animals is worth a library of words.”

“They go into these hell holes and bring out a video, and what they show the public, has the potential to change the world.”

“I believe in kindness, I believe in personal responsibility, and I believe in being decent to people.”

“Once a month, Ingrid participates in PETA’s Doghouse Delivery, an outreach program for needy local dogs.”

“Investigations are soul wracking, it takes a part of your heart, and breaks it. It is hideous for you, forever. You have to have enormous compassion for investigators.”

(At Jean Paul Gaultier’s shop in Paris, France) “Jean Paul Gaultier, he is getting worse and worse, and crueler and crueler.”

“We’ve had to change our style, because we’re desperate to catch people’s attention. It’s an act of desperation that we must use, or there will be silence.”

“You can’t sensationalize an issue that involves a lot of pain, like racism, and expect to advance an ethical cause.”

“If you don’t cross the lines sometimes, you don’t know where it is. What’s worse, is not to even approach the line.”

“They are targeting these groups because we are a threat to these billion dollar industries that make money off exploiting the environment and animals.”

“People say, “PETA by day, ALF by night.”

“What people are doing to animals is a far greater crime, than any crime that the ALF could commit.”

“One thing is clear, PETA has never backed down in 25 years.”