Mary Matalin Is Named PETA’s Person of the Year

Political Strategist Has Stellar Record of Helping to Protect Animals Used in Military Training, in Laboratories, on Factory Farms, and in Shelters

For Immediate Release:
December 8, 2016

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

For her critical assistance in defeating “ag-gag” bills across the country and shutting down cruel experiments on baby monkeys, among other animal-protection work, political correspondent and strategist Mary Matalin has been named PETA’s Person of the Year 2016.

Matalin was one of the most scathing critics of the National Institutes of Health’s decades-long maternal-deprivation experiments on baby monkeys, which ended after an aggressive PETA campaign. She campaigned against “ag-gag” bills that would have criminalized eyewitness exposés of cruelty in the food industry and that, as of 2016, have been defeated in 11 states due, in part, to the videotaped messages about American values that she sent to elected representatives. She also continues to encourage the military to end trauma training exercises in which live animals are shot or hacked apart with tree trimmers, and she promotes the adoption of homeless dogs and cats.

“We have learned to count on Mary Matalin to speak out against cruel policies that waste taxpayer dollars, harm animals, and cost them their lives,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is recognizing her for setting a tremendous example of compassion that all Americans can follow.”

PETA—whose motto is “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way”—has previously recognized Pope Francis, Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Russell Simmons, and Anjelica Huston as its Person of the Year.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.