The Write Stuff 

Meet Melissa: Her Words Open Hearts and Save Lives 

On an opinion page dominated by wars and politics, Melissa Sanger started a buzz about bees. “Bees do not make honey for human consumption,” she wrote. When humans take it, “It’s the equivalent of canning fresh vegetables from your garden to eat over the winter – and having an intruder steal what you worked so hard to make for your family.” 

Just like that, millions of Los Angeles Times readers’ perspectives shifted. 

From Front Yard to Front Page 

Defending animals comes naturally for Melissa. As a child, she confronted sidewalk bullies who were using a magnifying glass to burn ants alive. All grown up, a desire to help others see who animals are had her going back to school to study writing – all while working full-time as an animal shelter’s veterinary technician and raising her three daughters. Now, as a senior writer for the PETA Foundation, Melissa crafts pieces that make people see how their choices – like buying honey or meat, wearing the skins that properly belong to those born in them, or drinking oat milk instead of dairy – can mean life itself to our fellow Earthlings. 

Melissa’s work has been published everywhere from The New York Times to supermarket chain Kroger’s MyMagazine, which ran her vegan French dip recipe. Here she is cutting through the hype about the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, pointing out that “Best in Show” is the worst for dogs: 

As for people who “go so far as to mutilate dogs’ bodies for nothing more than appearance, chopping off their ears and tails,” she writes, “As a licensed vet tech, I have cared for puppies who cry in pain for weeks after their ears have been cut off, the blood-soaked bandages a reminder that dogs have no say in what happens to them.” 

“Animals are not trinkets or souvenirs, and anyone who sells puppies from the trunk of a car puts profit before the animals’ welfare. But regardless of whether someone is peddling puppies from a Mercedes or churning out litters in a licensed kennel, all breeding results in harm.”  

—From Melissa’s letter in the New York Post 

Rooting for the Underdogs and Underfrogs 

Of dogs kept chained outside, Melissa says, “I lie awake thinking of them out there.” She moves others to think about them, too, the dogs who “exist – it can’t be called ‘living’ – in a state of soul-crushing despair,” enduring “summer’s unbearable heat” and “winter’s bone-chilling cold.” She urges everyone to let dogs live indoors, help those who are kept chained, and push for anti-chaining legislation. 

She is just as passionate about puppy mills: Dogs “tremble in dark corners of feces-encrusted cages,” suffering from untreated infections and relentless confinement. And when she challenges classroom dissection, she states plainly: “Each dissected animal represents a stolen life and a compromised education.” Her words move people to action they hadn’t ever contemplated. 

Beyond the Byline 

From participating in protests to making vegan lasagna for people – and delivering it along with PETA’s vegan starter kits – Melissa is a true animal liberationist. She volunteers with PETA’s Community Animal Project, visiting the chained dogs she writes about so movingly, and serves on the after-hours emergency pager team, guiding people who have found animals in crisis – including a dog who would not have survived the night without her intervention. 

And, of course, she speaks up for ants and other insects. While pursuing a master’s degree in entomology, Melissa persuaded a professor to allow her to use only insects who had already died naturally for a project. When another professor used the phrase “more than one way to skin a cat,” Melissa sent him PETA’s animal-friendly idioms, including “more than one way to peel a potato.” His response: “I will use these next time!” 

“Being surrounded by people at PETA who are driven to make the world kinder has helped me grow into a confident, if ‘softly outspoken,’ person,” Melissa says. “Even though my job is to help animals, this job has helped me in ways I never imagined.”