A New Era for Animal Liberation: PETA Appoints New President for First Time in 45-Year History

For Immediate Release:
August 1, 2025

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

PETA has today appointed longtime campaigns chief Tracy Reiman as its president, marking a new era for the world’s largest animal liberation organization, which has been led by PETA’s founder, Ingrid Newkirk, since its inception in 1980. Newkirk will take on the role of principal.

Known for its provocative protests, effective undercover investigations, and legislative efforts to end animal exploitation worldwide, PETA will carry on its groundbreaking efforts under Reiman’s leadership, now with a focus on what she deems four of the most pressing issues in the modern-day animal liberation movement—including combating the abuse of sheep for wool, which Reiman aims to make as unacceptable as fur has become in fashion.

“The face of fashion is fear,” she says. “And I have seen it in the eyes of the terrified sheep who PETA has filmed being punched, kicked, and cut to shreds for their wool in shearing sheds around the world.”

As a mother who brought her son to his first animal rights protest at a KFC when he was just four weeks old, Reiman looks to the future by championing humane science education. “I have raised a son whose sense of justice has always included animals; a life-long vegan, he never dissected an animal in class, and now through the promotion of the Kind Frog and other modern alternatives to cutting up animals, I am determined to stop the generational insensitivity that led to vivisection,” she says. “My motto is Modernize!”

Reiman’s priorities also include freeing birds from captivity by showing people how detrimental it is to their wellbeing when people keep them as living decorations, or as “pets,” because it sentences birds like the parrots who fly free with their lifelong partners in her Los Angeles neighborhood to miserable, lonely lives in a cage. She also aims to take down humane-washing in the meat, egg, and dairy industries, pushing the message that the only label a shopper should look for is one marked “vegan.” She feels this especially strongly after witnessing great suffering at “free-range” “family farms” where 180,000 chickens were abandoned to starve inside giant warehouses.

“I saw a lone, crippled bird, lying there, looking right at me, but I could not save her,” she says. “This is when I knew that I had to work to stop the ‘humane-washing’ scam that tricks kind people into buying factory-farmed chickens and their eggs.”

A photo gallery of Reiman’s work with PETA is available here.

“I am honored to take on this leadership role at PETA, a powerhouse for animal liberation,” says Reiman. “I will continue to push, persuade, and, if need be, provoke people to choose compassion over cruelty, and I will work hard for the day when every rat, pig, dog, and other living being is free from exploitation.”

A Los Angeles resident since 2010, Reiman first joined PETA as a customer service representative in 1991, becoming Executive Vice President in 2007. She has led successful PETA campaigns to pressure some of the biggest names in business to adopt animal-friendly policies. Under her guidance, more than 450 top fashion brands—from Calvin Klein to H&M—have stopped selling fur, angora wool, down, or wild-animal skins; Ringling Bros. circus stopped forcing animals to perform under the big top and SeaWorld ended its orca-breeding program; and all of the top 10 advertising agencies in the U.S. pledged never to use great apes in their ads, among numerous other landmark victories for animals.

“Tracy Reiman gives everything she’s got to get animals out of laboratory cages, circus rings, slaughterhouses, and shoppers’ closets,” says Newkirk, who will remain president of PETA’s Foundation to Support Animal Protection (FSAP).

“Her creativity, drive, and fearlessness in the face of animal abuse make her the perfect leader for PETA’s next chapter, and I trust that we will be celebrating major victories for sheep, birds, and other animals in the very near future.”

PETA—whose motto reads, “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.