We spent the night in a French jail, which was less than comfortable, but nothing compared to what animals are subjected to!

Name: Violet Owens
Age: 22
Where do you live: North London
Job: Youth Campaigns Coordinator

My job involves…
Making every young person aware that animal rights is the one of the most important social justice issues of our time. We help young people decide for themselves whether or not they want to support cruelty to animals in the factory-farming, clothing, entertainment, and experimentation industries. All the kids we talk to decide that they don’t. It’s my role to bring animal rights to young people in the UK.

I chose this profession because…
Ever since I was young I loved animals. When I was just 8-years-old and saw the lifeless body of a cow dangling by her legs on a hook on television, that’s when it hit me that meat is animals, and I stopped eating animals from that day. As I got older I became more and more aware of the abuse that animals face, day in day out. For example, chickens live their entire lives in crowded, dirty sheds on factory farms only to have their throats cut, many while fully conscious. How could I do any other job knowing this?

I knew I was in the right job when…
I got the chance to take over Jean-Paul Gautier’s store in Paris with PETA president Ingrid Newkirk. Like Burberry and other companies that still rip the skin off animal’s backs for the sake of vanity, Jean-Paul Gaultier is ruthless and cruel in his attitude towards animals. It was wonderful to be able to demonstrate inside Gautier’s store to get the word out that he’s stuck in the dark ages and that fur should stay where it belongs, on the animals. We walked into the store casually then quickly bloodied up our coats and had hardly taken our place in the window before hoards of press and photographers were outside capturing the scene. We spent the night in a French jail, which was less than comfortable, but nothing compared to what animals on fur farms are subjected to – neck breaking, anal electrocution and drowning. Ingrid Newkirk is the co-founder of PETA and made the organisation what it is today. She is truly a hero for animals and it was an honour to demonstrate alongside her.

On a day-to-day basis my job is...
Working closely with bands like Bloc Party, Bring Me The Horizon and Good Charlotte who all want to help animals. We work with some of the biggest musical acts on the planet, such as Fall Out Boy, Razorlight and P!nk, all of whom care about animals and make choices in their own lives, such as being vegetarian or refusing to wear fur, that help save animal’s lives. I am responsible for setting up interviews, ads, petitions and contests with celebrities and clothing companies. On peta2.com we give away tons of free stuff through contests and giveaways including CDs, DVDs, T-shirts, hoodies and other exclusive gear from some of today’s biggest bands and clothing companies.

In this profession the most important thing is…
Enthusiasm. You have to be very dedicated and have a real urge to try and improve the lives of animals all over the world. I think you have to be tough as nails when you care so deeply about the job you’re doing, but it’s important that there are people out there working hard to help those without a voice. One of the easiest things that anyone can do to help animals is to stop eating them.

The best thing about my job is...
Being able to show off without people saying “stop showing off, Violet”. Sometimes I think of my job as being a professional ‘fuss maker’ - if there’s a scene to be made on behalf of animals, I’m your girl! I think I was born without the gene that enables me to be embarrassed! I never know what I’m going to be asked to do from one day to the next. One day I’m dressed up as a chicken on crutches outside KFC to demonstrate about the way KFC abuse animals or dressed up as a leopard to speak out for animals unnaturally confined in Zoo’s and the next day I could be backstage at Reading interviewing bands on being vegetarian! It’s great to get to work with musicians too like Jamelia, Joss Stone, My Chemical Romance and The Rakes. What a tough life, eh?

The worst thing about my job is…
Seeing images and video’s of animals suffering in the worst possible ways can affect you. I see some pretty nasty things in my job, its very uncomfortable viewing but unfortunately it’s a reality that animals have to live through. I’ve seen animals skinned alive for their fur, scalded to death on factory farms and pigs beaten against a concrete floor as they’re too sick for slaughter. It’s hard to watch, but I would encourage anyone who cares about animals to log on to peta2.com and watch our video’s for themselves, I don’t think that any rational person who knows what animals go through to get to your plate would ever touch a hamburger again.

The advice I would give to someone starting out would be to…
Join the peta2 street team! It’s the best way to meet other young people who want to help animals and a great way to get involved. The street team is peta2’s group of youth activists; it’s made up of 220,000 members worldwide who earn free stuff for spreading the word about cruelty to animals through letter-writing, leafleting, demonstrations, and talking to their peers. You can log on to peta2.com to join and receive free stickers.

A common misconception about my job is…
That being an animal rights campaigner is all glitz and glamour! Think again - it’s hard work! Being vegan, a question I get asked quite a lot is “well, what do you eat?” We eat everything that a meat eater eats, just without the animals! For everything that a meat eater eats there is a great vegetarian alternative that you can get in every supermarket. Many people like the taste of meat, but nobody likes the cruelty to animals involved, so if you can get the taste without the cruelty, then why not try it? You can order a free veggie starter kit with great easy veggie recipes from peta2.com

My ultimate career ambition is...
For peta2 to grow and grow! We’re only a few years old in the UK but more and more people are logging onto our website every day and learning about the cruelties that animals face and looking for ways to help. That, and to be a constant annoyance to anyone who hurts animals! Oh, and I want to meet the lovely vegetarian, Morrissey, so I can make a fool of myself and regret it for the rest of my life!