My First Animal Rights Protest (and Fun Pictures Too!)
Posted August 12, 2008 by Ryan Huling
You know, people often ask me “How did you get started in all of this?” and “What was the first step?”
Well, for me it began with a circus protest. Since I had signed up for the peta2 Street Team a few months earlier, I received an email in the fall of 2004 stating that the UniverSoul Circus was coming to town, and bringing their horrific record of animal abuse with them. I promptly emailed peta2, and requested posters and leaflets to hand out to attendees. I also gathered a few of my friends together, to hopefully show people the seedy underside of “The Big Top”.

It wasn’t the most highly attended demonstration in history (in fact, it might have been one of the lowest), but from that point forward I knew that organizing a demonstration really was as simple as can be. Needless to say, once I had one protest under my belt, I searched for opportunities to speak out again.
Since I had recently started a student group at my school, and I knew that those notorious uber-douches Ringling Bros. were coming to town, I got on Facebook and started organizing.

The feeling of success that comes with organizing these events really is incredible. Like a bus with no brakes, there was no stopping my friends and me. It didn’t matter which animal abuser we were targeting:
KFC…

Dogfighters…

Heck, we even had a little fun when speaking out against
the fur industry (yes, that’s me on the far left)…

The point is that protesting industries that abuse animals is not only super-easy, but it can also be really fun! All you have to do is take that first step. Trust me, you’ll never look back.
- Ryan!
691 days ago
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My brother and I just protested for the first time tonight. It was only us two for this circus performance, but the circus is here until Sunday. I have an event for it on facebook and have had a lot of encouragement from my friends, but I honestly don’t expect anyone else to help my brother and I. Tonight, I was harassed by an old man living across the street from where we were protesting (it’s the Kelly Miller Circus, btw)… “harassed” meaning he made a point of being rude to us and he called me fat! It was almost a silent protest, we didn’t speak to anyone unless they spoke to us first. This guy was so mean, though, I feel extremely discouraged. I live in NH in a city called Laconia. Some people commented to us that it was sad, but continued to walk on in anyways… Advice? Please help.
1742 days ago
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hehehe fur is a drag! i love it dude!!!
I can’t wait … threee more years and i’ll be moving to a big city where iam so tooootalyy doing this!
1744 days ago
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“Fur is a Drag!” Loves it!!
I can’t wait until I get to do my first protest…there aren’t really too many opportunities to do so in Alabama, though. =[
There’s a little fur shop right next to my apartment complex, I hope to one day do a demo there or something.
1745 days ago
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I like the idea of the fur protest. Nice costume!
1745 days ago
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Awesome!
I really hope I can do a demo…the circus is coming to my town in September. Just gotta get the right away from the parents, which is hard.
1745 days ago
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Sounds like wicked fun! Love the pictures.