Teenage Hero to Animals Avery Chauncey Memorialized by PETA

For Immediate Release:
October 27, 2025

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

PETA is dedicating a leaf on its Tree of Life memorial at its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters to Avery Chauncey, the 18-year-old Corry resident who founded the nonprofit Avery’s Pawsitive Change to provide food for animals in need, who passed away earlier this month following a long battle with Ewing Sarcoma cancer.

PETA’s memorial honors those whose lives and actions have made a difference for animals. peta2, PETA’s youth division, previously named Avery a Hero to Animals after she raised thousands of dollars for animal shelters across the country, all while undergoing cancer treatment.

“Even as she battled cancer from a hospital bed, Avery Chauncey worked to fill the bowls of hungry cats and dogs and raise desperately needed funds for animal shelters nationwide,” says peta2 Vice President Rachelle Owen. “Avery’s legacy of compassion will live on in the many people she inspired, and PETA encourages everyone to honor her memory by doing a kind deed for the animals in their community.”

PETA is sending a duplicate leaf, along with a photograph of the Tree of Life, to Avery’s family. Other honorees on the Tree of Life include a father who was struck by a car after helping a family of ducks cross the street, a legislator who championed laws to protect companion animals, and a man who was killed while rescuing his sister’s cat from hurricane floodwaters.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any 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.