Ingrid Newkirk Quotes (48 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Ingrid Newkirk: 48 quotes 2 likes

Famous Ingrid Newkirk Quotes

“It [animal research] is immoral even if it's essential.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Washington Post 1989 May 30.
On animal research and activism against it

“I think that’s just a throwaway line, because most people don’t really care if they are being true to their original nature. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be wearing clothes and driving cars, but out picking berries and eating bark. If you study anthropology — which most people don’t — and you start to learn about our intestinal structure, our teeth, our digestive system, our mouth structure, you begin to realize that maybe we aren’t meant to be eating animals after all.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Montreal Mirror http://web.archive.org/20020703023107/www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2002/032102/news3.html
In response to people who say it is natural to eat meat

“If anyone did that, I absolutely apologize. … Because everything we do is based at adults. We're asking adults be responsible. You were telling me about giving your children meat and milk. They're going to be to grow up to be tubs of lard. They're getting heart attacks.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Interview on CNN's Crossfire http://www.animalrights.net/archives/year/2002/000094.html (2002); in response to Tucker Carlson's description of a PETA member campaigning directly to his four-year-old son outside a circus.
2002

“When we build an attractive home, we raze land on which animals have already built their homes. They have nowhere to go.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Reason, June, 1990
1990s

“No one has to stand behind us; we’ve never asked anyone to defend the way we get attention. The fact is we are the biggest group because we succeed in getting attention. … The fact is we may be doing all sorts of things on a campaign but the one thing that gets attention is the outrageous thing. It simply goes to prove to us each time, that that is the thing that’s going to work; and so we won’t shirk from doing that facet — in addition to all the other things we do that you never hear about because no one cares.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Satya, January, 2001 http://www.satyamag.com/jan01/newkirk.html.
2001

“Every animal has his or her story, his or her thoughts, daydreams, and interests. All feel joy and love, pain and fear, as we now know beyond any shadow of a doubt. All deserve that the human animal afford them the respect of being cared for with great consideration for those interests or left in peace.”

Ingrid Newkirk

"Every Week There is More Reason to Feel Empathy for Animals" https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ingrid-newkirk/every-week-there-is-more_b_216409.html, Huffington Post, 17 July 2009.
2009

Ingrid Newkirk Quotes about animals

“There is no hidden agenda. If anybody wonders about — what’s this with all these reforms — you can hear us clearly. Our goal is total animal liberation.”

Ingrid Newkirk

“Animal Rights 2002” convention, 2002 June 30

“I don’t use the word 'pet.' I think it’s speciesist language. I prefer 'companion animal.' For one thing, we would no longer allow breeding. People could not create different breeds. There would be no pet shops. If people had companion animals in their homes, those animals would have to be refugees from the animal shelters and the streets. You would have a protective relationship with them just as you would with an orphaned child. But as the surplus of cats and dogs (artificially engineered by centuries of forced breeding) declined, eventually companion animals would be phased out, and we would return to a more symbiotic relationship — enjoyment at a distance.”

Ingrid Newkirk

The Harper's Forum Book, Jack Hitt, ed., 1989, p. 223.
1980s

“Society is celebrity-based and we are determined to use [celebrities'] voices to make sure no one forgets there are issues over the use of animals. Celebrities can be great for our cause and can really make people sit up and think for the first time about animal abuse.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Ingrid Newkirk — taking on the critics http://www.animal-lib.org.au/more_interviews/ingrid/, Animal Liberation NSW.
2003

“Animal liberationists do not separate out the human animal, so there is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They are all mammals”

Ingrid Newkirk

Vogue 1989 September 1
Attributed variants:
"When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy"
"A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They’re all animals." — Washingtonian magazine, 1986 August 1

“You don't have to own squirrels and starlings to get enjoyment from them … One day, we would like an end to pet shops and the breeding of animals. [Dogs] would pursue their natural lives in the wild … they would have full lives, not wasting at home for someone to come home in the evening and pet them and then sit there and watch TV.”

Ingrid Newkirk

The Chicago Daily Herald, 1990 March 1.
1990s

“We have to be aggressive when those we stick up for have no voice. I don't consider it radical to say cruelty is wrong and that animals should be respected. I consider it radical to eat corpses, put electrodes in animals' heads, make elephants live in chains in the circus, and poison animals we consider a nuisance.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Veg Family, March, 2003 http://www.vegfamily.com/interviews/ingrid-newkirk.htm

Ingrid Newkirk Quotes about thinking

“If a girl gets sexual pleasure from riding a horse, does the horse suffer? If not, who cares? If you French kiss your dog and he or she thinks it's great, is it wrong? We believe all exploitation and abuse is wrong. If it isn't exploitation and abuse, it may not be wrong.”

Ingrid Newkirk

New York Times, 2001 http://www.animalrights.net/quotes.html http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/233771_robert23.html.
2001

“In the end, I think it would be lovely if we stopped this whole notion of pets altogether.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Newsday, 1988 February 21.
1980s

“Well, it’s not like this is anything we are trying to hide. About three times in our 21-year history we have thought it was a good idea — and still do — to defend some very good activists who have done some decent things for animals and who have happened to get into trouble. One of those people is Rodney Coronado, who is a very committed Native American animal rights activist and a decent person. He did something [firebombed a research facility at Michigan State University] that put him in prison for three-and-a-half years and I think that if we hadn’t provided him with a good legal defence he wouldn’t be back out doing productive things in the community again — like the good person that he is. We are very happy to have done that.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Montreal Mirror http://web.archive.org/20020703023107/www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2002/032102/news3.html.
On animal research and activism against it

“If Vice President Al Gore advocated killing rabbits to see if women are pregnant and called it a step forward for science, we'd all think he'd gone 'round the bend. We don't need to do that sort of thing anymore, we'd say. We have better, kinder ways.”

Ingrid Newkirk

The Washington Times, 1999 August 29
1990s

“I know it's illegal [trespassing], but I don't think it's wrong.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Montgomery County, MD, Journal 1988 February 16.
On animal research and activism against it

“Look out for your baby or your friend, of course. That is easy. The test of moral fiber is to stick up for those you relate to least, understand minimally, and do not think are that much like you.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Keynote address at the 2002 "Animal Rights" conference http://www.peta.org/feat/conference/
2002

Ingrid Newkirk Quotes

“When I hear of anyone walking into a lab and walking out with animals, my heart sings.”

Ingrid Newkirk

"To Market, To Market," Los Angeles Times Magazine, 1992 March 22.
On animal research and activism against it

Singing , Heart , Animals

“I plan to send my liver somewhere in France, to protest foie gras (liver pate) … I plan to have handbags made from my skin … and an umbrella stand made from my seat.”

Ingrid Newkirk

During the hoof and mouth disease outbreak in Europe
speaking to onMilwaukee.com, 2005 February 1
2005

“Humans have grown like a cancer. We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Washingtonian magazine, 1990 February 1
Reader's Digest, June, 1990
1990s

“Probably everything we do is a publicity stunt … we are not here to gather members, to please, to placate, to make friends. We're here to hold the radical line.”

Ingrid Newkirk

USA Today, 1991 September 3
1990s

“I will be the last person to condemn ALF [the Animal Liberation Front].”

Ingrid Newkirk

The New York Daily News, 1997 December 7.
1990s

Animals , Personality

“I’m not only uninterested in having children. I am opposed to having children. Having a purebred human baby is like having a purebred dog; it is nothing but vanity, human vanity.”

Ingrid Newkirk

New Yorker magazine, April 23 2003

Children , Dogs , Baby

“Pet ownership is an absolutely abysmal situation brought about by human manipulation.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Harper's, 1988 August 1.
1980s

“If that hideousness came here, it wouldn't be any more hideous for the animals — they are all bound for a ghastly death anyway. But it would wake up consumers. … I openly hope it [hoof and mouth disease] comes here. It will bring economic harm only for those who profit from giving people heart attacks and giving animals a concentration camp-like existence. It would be good for animals, good for human health and good for the environment.”

Ingrid Newkirk

ABC News interview, 2001 April 2

Death , People , Health , Disease

“Would I rather the research lab that tests animals is reduced to a bunch of cinders? Yes.”

Ingrid Newkirk

New York Daily News, 1997 December 7.
On animal research and activism against it

Animals

“We do not advocate "right to life" for animals.”

Ingrid Newkirk

On a postcard to Nathan Winograd, a neuter/release and no-kill shelter advocate http://www.nokillnow.com/PETAIngridNewkirkResign.htm.
On pets

Life , Animals

“Even painless research is fascism, supremacism, because the act of confinement is traumatizing in itself.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Washingtonian Magazine, August, 1986.
On animal research and activism against it

“The bottom line is that people don't have the right to manipulate or to breed dogs and cats… If people want toys, they should buy inanimate objects. If they want companionship, they should seek it with their own kind.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Animals, 1993 May 1.
1990s

People , Dogs , Cats

“And I love walking someone else’s dog. I don’t have the luxury of having a dog myself because I travel too much, but I love walking and cuddling somebody else’s dog. I just came back from the shelter today and they let me walk three dogs at lunchtime. It was great.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Satya, January, 2001 http://www.satyamag.com/jan01/newkirk.html.
On pets

Love , Dogs , Travel

“I am not a morose person, but I would rather not be here. I don’t have any reverence for life, only for the entities themselves. I would rather see a blank space where I am. This will sound like fruitcake stuff again but at least I wouldn’t be harming anything”

Ingrid Newkirk

The Washington Post, 1983 November 13

Life , Personality

“I am just trying to make the best possible case for the animals. That is clearly what I have been put on earth to do. Even after I am gone I will try to continue.”

Ingrid Newkirk

"Mother Nature", The Observer 2003 June 22 http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,982402,00.html
2003

Animals

“Even if animal experiments did result in a cure for AIDS, of which there is no chance, I’d be against it on moral grounds.”

Ingrid Newkirk

McGraw, Michael, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "PETA and AIDS research" http://www.cnsnews.com/letterstotheeditor/letters_archive/2006/letters20060515.asp, Letters to the Editor, CNSNews.com, May 15, 2006.
On animal research and activism against it

Chance , Animals

“If my father had a heart attack, it would give me no solace at all to know his treatment was first tried on a dog.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Washington Post, 1983 November 13.
On animal research and activism against it

Dogs , Heart

“If it’s anything that’s going to result in suffering to animals or people, then I don’t think [the end] justifies the means. … Yeah; but then again if you could hurt ten people to save 100 people and there was no option, what would you do? I can’t really address that.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Satya, January, 2001 http://www.satyamag.com/jan01/newkirk.html.
On animal research and activism against it

People , Thinking , Suffering , Animals

“Eating meat is primitive, barbaric, and arrogant.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Washington City Paper, 1985 December 20

“In today’s world of tabloid press and with so much competing for people’s attention, it’s a miracle to get their attention at all. And of course having to compete with the advertising budget of even one of our adversaries is impossible. If the whole movement pooled its resources and went after simply one thing, like the veal industry, we wouldn’t make a dent, advertising dollar for advertising dollar. To me the greatest success is in catching the attention of the public and reminding them that there’s an animal involved, and that that animal is believed not to have been treated properly by a segment of the population.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Satya, November, 2000 http://www.satyamag.com/novdec00/newkirk.html.
2000

People , World , Success , Animals

“Six million people died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses.”

Ingrid Newkirk

The Washington Post, 1983 November 13

People

“We are opposed to all cruelty, so as advocates of non-violence, opponents of oppression, people who abhor the cruelty inherent in slaughtering we say the only ethical way to consume flesh is to pick up the carcass of an animal who has died naturally or been killed accidentally, say by being hit by a car, and eat that.”

Ingrid Newkirk

India Together, July, 2000 http://www.indiatogether.org/reports/peta/newkirk.htm
2000

People , Cars , Way , Nature

“Perhaps the mere idea of receiving a nasty missive will allow animal researchers to empathize with their victims for the first time in their lousy careers. I find it small wonder that the laboratories aren’t all burning to the ground. If I had more guts, I’d light a match.”

Ingrid Newkirk

The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999 November 12.
After The Justice Department mailed 87 razor blade–laced threats to medical researchers studying news drugs on primates.
On animal research and activism against it

Idea , Light , Time , Animals

“Seriously, I think everybody needs to be more disciplined; nobody needs any meat. But from a perspective of how many animals suffer, it’s probably better to kill and eat one whale than it is to eat fish, chickens, cows, lambs and eggs.”

Ingrid Newkirk

Satya, November, 2000 http://www.satyamag.com/novdec00/newkirk.html

Thinking , Fish , Suffering , Animals

“Our nonviolent tactics are not as effective. We ask nicely for years and get nothing. Someone makes a threat, and it works.”

Ingrid Newkirk

US News & World Report, 2002 April 8.
On animal research and activism against it

“I wish we all would get up and go into the labs and take the animals out or burn them down.”

Ingrid Newkirk

"National Animal Rights Convention", 1997 June 27.
On animal research and activism against it

Animals

“More power to [Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty] if they can get someone’s attention.”

Ingrid Newkirk

The Boston Herald, 2002 August 25.
2002

Animals

“That's what the Nazis did, isn't it? Treated those "others" they thought subhuman by making them lab subjects and so on. Even the Nazis didn't eat the objects of their derision.”

Ingrid Newkirk

"Mother Nature", The Observer 2003 June 22 http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,982402,00.html

“We are complete press sluts.”

Ingrid Newkirk

The New Yorker, 2003 April 14.
2003

“I don’t use the word 'pet.' I think it’s speciesist language. I prefer 'companion animal.”

Ingrid Newkirk

For one thing, we would no longer allow breeding. People could not create different breeds. There would be no pet shops. If people had companion animals in their homes, those animals would have to be refugees from the animal shelters and the streets. You would have a protective relationship with them just as you would with an orphaned child. But as the surplus of cats and dogs (artificially engineered by centuries of forced breeding) declined, eventually companion animals would be phased out, and we would return to a more symbiotic relationship — enjoyment at a distance.
The Harper's Forum Book, Jack Hitt, ed., 1989, p. 223.
1980s

Animals , Thinking