Watertown High School Student Could Take Home a Libby if Deemed the Group's Fiercest Animal Advocate
For Immediate Release:
December 16, 2011
Contact:
Adam Miller 202-483-7382
Watertown, Wis. -- He's already started his own animal rights group and helped stop an airline from shipping monkeys used for cruel and deadly experiments, so what's next for 16-year-old Watertown resident Jordan Turner? For starters, he's just been named one of four male finalists for the Libby Award for Male Street Teamer of the Year by peta2, PETA's youth division. The sixth annual Libby Awards ("Libby" is for "liberation") honor animal-friendly people and products. Visitors to peta2.com/Libbys can vote for their favorites in each category, and peta2 will choose the winners.
"Jordan's energy and passion for and dedication to helping animals have helped him become one of the most active student animal defenders in North America," says peta2 Division Manager Marta Holmberg. "Our impressive finalists prove that the real winners are the animals these students work so hard to protect."
Turner is cofounder and manager of the Global Conservation Group (GCG), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping animals. CGC works tirelessly to raise funds to pay for spay and neuter surgeries for local cats and dogs, and the group holds weekly protests at McDonald's restaurants to let customers know about the cruel ways in which its suppliers raise and kill chickens. Along with other activists, Turner campaigned against the shipment of monkeys from St. Kitts to the U.S. for use in experiments in which the animals would be caged, tormented, and killed. As a result, IBC Airways pledged never to ship monkeys to laboratories again. And Turner is credited with coining the slogan "Are You a Hooker?" to focus attention on the cruelty of the fishing industry.
In addition to the four male finalists, four finalists have been nominated for Female Street Teamer of the Year. Twenty-nine Libby Awards will be given out this year, recognizing everything from the best cruelty-free cosmetics to peta2's favorite animal-friendly celebrity. Each winner will receive a framed certificate and be featured on peta2.com.
For more information about all the nominees, please visit peta2.com/Libbys.
Voting ends on December 23, and the winners will be announced on January 17. The winners will be chosen by peta2 based on equal consideration of three factors: the number of votes received, the quality of the animal-friendly product or the nominees' enthusiasm for being animal-friendly, and feedback from the nominees' fans.