It was a grand day for celebrating in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Sunday. Thousands of monkeys had been saved from being tortured and killed in laboratories, and in a special reception at her gourmet vegan restaurant, Sublime, PETA's patron Nanci Alexander honored one of the key women who made it possible, with PETA's Nanci Alexander Activist Award.

Nanci Alexander and Puerto Rico Sen. Melinda Romero-Donnelly

When Bioculture, Inc., planned to open a monkey-breeding facility in Guayama, Puerto Rico, where it would imprison 4,000 monkeys and sell their babies for use in torturous experiments, it didn't count on Puerto Rico Sen. Melinda Romero-Donnelly. She worked with PETA and led a Senate investigation into Bioculture, which uncovered that the company had failed to file required reports and had built its facility on land that was not zoned for that use. PETA filed a lawsuit to halt construction of the facility and won every round. Sen. Romero-Donnelly helped get a Senate resolution passed that formally asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to deny Bioculture any permits to import or breed animals in Puerto Rico. 

In front of a crowd that included supermodel Joanna Krupa, Telemundo's Natalia Villaveces, El Talismán's Pablo Azar, pro surfer Karina Petroni, and PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk, Sen. Romero-Donnelly received the award, given in honor of Alexander, who founded the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida.

Nanci Alexander awards activist Meggan Anderson

Besides the treat of world-class vegan cuisine, the crowd was treated to the unveiling of Joanna Krupa's Angel for Animals ad and PETA campaigner Meggan Anderson's acceptance of the Nanci Alexander Award for her tireless efforts in behalf of animals.

Unveiling of Joanna Krupa's Angel for Animals ad 

But of course, the real delight of the evening was knowing that thousands of monkeys would not be suffering in laboratories, thanks to dedicated animal advocates.

Yesterday, Nanci Alexander—one of our most generous and tireless friends to animals—joined a myriad of PETA supporters in D.C. to cut the ribbon and officially open the doors to PETA's Washington home, The Nanci Alexander Center for Animal Rights:

© Leigh Vogel

Nanci, whom Ingrid E. Newkirk describes as "an animal rights activist's activist," is the woman to whom Newkirk dedicated her book One Can Make a Difference. She is also the founder of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida and the creator of Fort Lauderdale's fabulous all-vegan world cuisine restaurant Sublime, where Sir Paul McCartney and Steve-O have enjoyed meals, and as Ingrid says, if George Bernard Shaw and the Buddha were alive, you'd find them eating there too. She was among the first to spark debate over SeaWorld's horrible confinement of killer whales and dolphins and was also behind Florida's pig gestation-crate ban.

Finding herself seated next to President Bush the elder one day, Nanci asked him to do one thing: think about the suffering of the animals he shoots. If everyone spoke up that way, the world would be a far kinder place. Nanci has devoted her life to waking people up to cruelty to animals and changing everything from what they think to what they eat. PETA plans to do great things from the building now named after her.

Written by Logan Scherer