Skinny Bitch Coauthor Contributes $5,000 in Matching Donations to Encourage Kids to Help Stop Cruelty to Animals

For Immediate Release:
July 1, 2009

Contact:
Dan Shannon 757-622-7382  

Norfolk, Va. -- Since its birth in 2002, peta2, the world's largest youth animal rights organization, has exploded in size. The group currently claims nearly 600,000 members and draws up to 375,000 visitors per week to its Web site, peta2.com. Now, the group has its sights set on building the world's largest youth donor network and has kicked things off with a "premium purchase" campaign to help young people put their money to work helping animals.

During the program's promotional launch--which began on June 10--donors who contributed $16 or more received a plush version of peta2's "I Am Not a Nugget!" chick, an official peta2 membership card, a 10 percent discount on all PETA Catalog items, and samples of all peta2's latest stickers.

Skinny Bitch coauthor Rory Freedman even joined in, offering to match donations totaling up to $5,000 to help encourage young people to get involved. The matching-donation portion of the campaign has ended, but because the program succeeded in raising approximately $7,000 from 380 youth donors, it will continue with other special offers intended to encourage young people to donate.

The organization spends its money in numerous ways, including the following:

*  Sponsors hundreds of protests at KFC restaurants across the country in order to pressure the fast-food chain to stop its suppliers' worst abuses of chickens

*  Holds seminars in cities throughout the U.S. to teach young people how they can stop animal abuse in their own communities

*  Pressures youth-oriented retailers such as Forever 21 and Wet Seal, which went fur-free following peta2 protests, to remove fur from their stores

*  Works with college groups to stop cruel and wasteful animal experiments in their schools' laboratories

*  Travels every summer with the Warped Tour to help raise awareness of animal suffering among young concertgoers

"Our donor program provides young people with an easy, affordable way to help improve animals' lives, and it also creates future philanthropists," says PETA Assistant Director Dan Shannon. "Animal rights has gone mainstream, and young people have been leading the charge."

For more information, please visit peta2.com.