Animal Advocate in the Spotlight for the Month of June!

Gina Marano's Tireless Fights Against Animal Cruelty

Meet animal rights activist and In Defense of Animals monthly supporter, Gina Marano! Gina lives with her three rescue cats, Hampton, Alli, and Lucia (who is included in photograph above). Gina has especially strong feelings of compassion for elephants and other animals who are abused for entertainment in the circus.

Gina tells us about her advocacy efforts: 

“In 2005, I became involved with the Circus Reform campaign's local chapter and protested a couple of times when circuses came to town. I also petitioned the Minneapolis City Council to take the first step back then to ban the use of bull hooks in training elephants during performances. Soon, surrounding counties began to ban circuses from performing and here we are today with Ringling Bros Circus having performed its last show in May 2017.

The Circus Reform campaign, representing elephants, and other wild animals forced to perform or caged for entertainment purposes, has been one of the more important campaigns I have worked on. I have also volunteered as a Wildlife Transporter — transporting injured wild animals from an intake room at our local Animal Humane Society to wildlife rehabilitators including the Raptor Center.

Each summer, I carry around “hot dogs in cars” flyers, and put a flyer on cars that I see with dogs stuck inside on a warm day. If the situation is deadly I have a list of local police department’s numbers in my wallet and will make the call. I also petition for legislation to make it against the law to leave an animal in a locked vehicle.”

Thank you, Gina, for all of your advocacy efforts! We are so lucky to have you on our team of Animal Advocates.