Alex Pacheco (activist)
| Alex Pacheco | |
|---|---|
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| Born | August 1958 (age 58) Joliet, Illinois, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Ohio University |
| Known for |
Animal rights advocacy Founder, 600 Million Stray Dogs Need You Co-founder, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) |
| Parent(s) | Jimmy Pacheco Mary Pacheco |
| Awards |
U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame (2001) The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience (1995) Sea Shepherd Crew Member of the Year (1979) |
U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame (2001)
The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience (1995)
Alexander Fernando Pacheco (born August 1958) is an American animal rights activist. He is founder of 600 Million Stray Dogs Need You, co-founder and former chairman of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and a member of the advisory board of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Pacheco first crewed with Captain Paul Watson in 1979 on the ship Sea Shepherd across the Atlantic Ocean, during a campaign of opposition to the Sierra, a Portuguese pirate whale-killing ship. Both The Sea Shepherd and the Sierra were sunk after being seized by the Portuguese authorities.
Pacheco came to wider public attention in 1981 for his role, along with Ingrid Newkirk, in what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case, a campaign to release 17 crab-eating macaques who were undergoing experiments in the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. Oliver Stone writes that the political campaign to save the monkeys gave birth to the animal rights movement in the United States.
Pacheco was born in Joliet, Illinois, but moved to Mexico with his family when he was very young, where he and his two siblings were raised near the ocean by his Mexican father, a physician, and his mother, an American nurse. Kathy Snow Guillermo writes in Monkey Business (1993) that Pacheco's early life was filled with animals; bats lived in the rubber trees in his front yard, snakes slept behind nearby rocks, and fishermen regularly dragged dolphins out of the water onto the beach. Instead of animals being killed for food in slaughterhouses, pigs, oxen, chickens, and turkeys were frequently killed in front of him.
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