Winter Activism: Stay Warm While Speaking Out

Posted by Calvin on December 02, 2024

Whether it’s the speciesist tradition of eating turkeys and pigs during the holiday season or some folks’ habit of wearing the skin and fur of slaughtered animals to keep warm, cold weather brings a whole new set of bizarre ways humans use animals. It can also be more challenging to speak up for them. You may have a harder time getting your friends and classmates to attend protests when it’s 20 degrees outside, but that shouldn’t stop you from taking action.

Here are some tips on staying loud for animals even during the coldest winter months:

Set Up a Protest Indoors

Set up a table inside your dorm lobby or outside your school’s lunchroom urging students to sign petitions, or go into an Urban Outfitters store with a group of friends and encourage it to stop selling wool, leather, and other animal body parts.

Organize a Banner Drop

Get creative and find a public spot to display an animal rights banner that can’t be ignored! This takes less time and coordination than your average protest, and you won’t have to be outside for long.

Speak at Indoor Events and Meetings

Campaigns can take a lot of strategy—maybe you want to end animal dissection at your high school and can speak at a PTA meeting or school board meeting in the winter, or maybe you want your college to drop cruel experiments on animals and can speak up at a board of regents meeting. You can use the cold winter months to prep and strategize—planning your next steps, meeting with your fellow advocates in person or over Zoom, and e-mailing stakeholders and decision-makers.

Check out the peta2 guide to starting your own campaign, and e-mail [email protected] for help getting started!

Think Ahead

Did your school plan this year’s prom at SeaWorld and say that it was too late to cancel? Maybe you didn’t realize that your bio class was going to dissect dead animals until you smelled the formaldehyde (ugh—we all know that gross smell). Well, there’s always next year—and planning is the best way to keep up the momentum and prepare everything for your next victory for animals. Talk to your school now—don’t wait.

Leave Literature Everywhere

No matter the weather, we all have to go out to pick up our fave vegan snacks, purchase some warm and comfy vegan winter boots, shop for animal–test–free shampoo, and go about our regular lives—and there’s always a way to incorporate animal rights. Leave animal rights leaflets and stickers at the doctor’s office, grocery store, campus library, or wherever you go. We’ll send you everything for free—e-mail us at [email protected].

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Want more ideas? Follow peta2 on Instagram to see how student activists are changing the world for animals!