PETA Appoints Pasadena Resident Tracy Reiman as New President in First-Ever Leadership Change

PETA has named Pasadena resident Tracy Reiman as its new president, making her the first person to lead the organization since founder Ingrid Newkirk established it in 1980. Newkirk will continue as principal and as president of the Foundation to Support Animal Protection.

“I am honored to take on this leadership role at PETA, a powerhouse for animal liberation,” said Reiman. “I will continue to push, persuade, and, if need be, provoke people to choose compassion over cruelty.”

Reiman, a Los Angeles resident since 2010, began her PETA career in 1991 and became executive vice president in 2007. Her leadership has helped persuade more than 450 fashion brands to stop selling fur, angora wool, down, and wild-animal skins. She also led efforts that ended Ringling Bros.’ animal performances, SeaWorld’s orca-breeding program, and the use of great apes in major advertising campaigns.

Now leading the organization, Reiman spotlights four major priorities. Her campaign to eliminate wool in fashion was inspired by PETA’s investigations showing sheep being abused. “The face of fashion is fear,” she said. “And I have seen it in the eyes of the terrified sheep.”

A mother and longtime activist, Reiman also aims to end dissection in science education. “I have raised a son whose sense of justice has always included animals,” she said. “My motto is Modernize!”

Reiman wants to stop bird captivity, noting how keeping parrots as pets “sentences birds like the parrots who fly free with their lifelong partners in her Los Angeles neighborhood to miserable, lonely lives in a cage.”

In exposing so-called “humane-washing” in food production, she shared the horror of witnessing 180,000 chickens abandoned in a warehouse.
“I saw a lone, crippled bird, looking right at me, but I could not save her,” Reiman said.

Newkirk called Reiman “the perfect leader” to carry PETA forward, citing her fearlessness and creativity.

PETA’s motto: “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.” The organization also promotes “Every Animal Is Someone” and offers free Empathy Kits.

For more, visit PETA.org.