I had the chance to chat with the wonderful Dan Mathews about his activist driven career with Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) as the organization celebrates 40 years and learn what drives and inspires him. Dan is my first subject in my new “Cultural Igniters Series”where I interviews folks who have made significant cultural imprints in our world for the better.

What books got you through 2020

I mostly read music memoirs. My favorite this year is Kathy Valentine’s All I Ever Wanted, which recounts The Go-Go’s early punk rock days in LA, a scene which I was lucky to be a part of. I met The Go-Go’s in 1979 in a club while I was still in high school, and after I started at PETA in 1985 they joined as early spokespeople and were the first to pose for PETA’s “Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign.

Speaking of books, a couple of years ago you released your very own! Tell us what the book is about and how folks can get their hands on a copy.

My first memoir, Committed, came out in 2007. It covers my evolution from gay punching bag in high school to international PETA crusader—and a lot of the wild characters who helped make animal rights a global cause.

My new memoir, Like Crazy, published in August 2020. That one is a psychological drama about moving in my eccentric mother to care for her in her final years only to learn that she was an untreated schizophrenic. She was everyone’s favourite character in the first book as she’s so bawdy and witty, plus she taught me to defend animals since I was a child.

Recently you were involved in a monumental birthday celebration for Peta. Tell us about the festivities and some of the celebrities involved in making it such a unique event.

We celebrated PETA’s 40th anniversary at the end of 2020, with a virtual awards event featuring Mariah Carey, Dolly Parton, Paul McCartney, Alan Cumming, Pamela Anderson, Bill Maher and many more notable advocates. I dreaded it because most people have Zoom fatigue and I wasn’t sure how we could put together a show that was enticing, moving, and entertaining, but it turned out incredibly well!

You have been involved with Peta for many years. Tell us how that came to be and what your role(s) have been over the years.

I started as the receptionist n 1985, right after graduating from American University in DC. As I had already been an animal activist for years, I answered every letter we got in addition to questions over the phone. But since I was part of the MTV generation, I always had ideas about involving bands to help us reach more people, especially younger people who didn’t watch the news much. I enlisted 80s icons like The B-52s, Bjork, Morrissey, and more to do an animal rights anthology album to benefit PETA and to do club shows like Rock Against Fur for us. As that work exploded I moved from the reception desk into campaigns, where I have been ever since. I launched the Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur campaign on the streets of Tokyo, and other splashy protests which landed me in jail more than 20 times. I learned early on that the media won’t cover the same issues and tactics without some fresh angle, and so to keep animal rights from becoming passé we’ve had to constantly reinvent ourselves. That’s one reason why PETA is now the largest animal rights group in the world, with more than 7 million members and supporters and affiliates on just about every continent.

With your many years at Peta, what have been some of the most significant strides for animal liberation you have witnessed and what needs to happen in the future?

Our undercover cruelty investigations and relentless protests have resulted in many historic victories. Among the top ones are closing down Ringling Bros, who we exposed for beating animals to force them to perform; exposing graphic cruelty in labs and pressuring cosmetic companies, automakers, and government agencies to switch to more reliable, non-animal methods; pressuring the world’s top fashion houses, like Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein to drop not just fur but exotic skins; and our nonstop exposes of the meat and dairy trade, which has helped create a generation that now strives to eat vegan. It’s frustrating to many activists how long it takes people to change, but when you look back at PETA’s 4 decades it becomes clear how many of these lifestyle changes are generational and really caused culture to evolve.