Although he has felt compassion towards animals for as long as he can remember, when he was 15, Andy stumbled across PETA's fur campaign and, after completing a series of internet searches, decided to drop meat from his plate.
Since finishing his GCSEs, he has been an active campaigner for the rights of animals in laboratories, in circuses, on farms and in fashion.
When not helping animals, Andy spends his time working on a degree in European theatre arts, which he describes as a "posh collection of words for acting".
He loves walking in the countryside, cooking and spending time in his hometown of Portsmouth. His guilty pleasures include watching musicals, visiting art galleries and maintaining a huge crush on Fearne Cotton.
© iStockPhoto.com / arsgera
I suppose that’s a bit of a weird statement coming from an animal rights organisation, but if you own a fur coat, one of the best things you can do to it is send it to PETA. That way it can be recycled, given to the homeless or used as animal bedding or in one of PETA’s hard-hitting demonstrations. Using fur coats to save animals from being turned into fur coats – genius, eh?
Today I was volunteering in the PETA… Read more.
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Question: What do 9p noodles from Sainsbury’s, £1 worth of Redwood sandwich slices from Morrisons and a packet of Bourbons have in common?
Answer: They’re all sitting in my kitchen right now.
Fact: Student food is bad. Other fact: Vegan student food is a million times better. Vegetables are cheap and easy to cook, and their production doesn’t cause animal suffering!
It’s a common misconception that it is expensive to be a vegan student. I follow a strict vegan diet for… Read more.
© iStockPhoto.com / kerriekerr
When I first volunteered at PETA, in addition to jamming letters in the franking machine, I spent a lot of time each day finding palm oil–free products to list in the vegetarian/vegan starter kit. Up until then, I’d had no idea how palm oil is affecting our planet and the animals in it.
Palm oil is often sourced from the homes of endangered orang-utans and many other forest-dwelling creatures. Greedy businesses cut down the trees and leave the animals homeless… Read more.
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So Boris Johnson has announced a £3 million scheme to reward low-carbon neighbourhoods. I’m hoping this means he will reward some of London’s amazing vegan restaurants for doing their part to clean up the planet. If so, perhaps even more great animal-friendly establishments will start popping up around the city.
The meat and dairy industries are damaging our planet. In fact, the United Nations has said that the meat industry produces more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars in the… Read more.
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Living with meat-eaters isn’t easy. On top of waking up on Saturday morning to the smell of burning flesh, you may on occasion come home late from visiting your girlfriend in Portsmouth to find that your flatmate has filled both his and your freezer space with a variety of frozen animals and animal by-products.
Sadly, when you move into university housing, you don’t get a choice of whom to live with. A couple of weeks ago, I got a great little card game… Read more.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Foundation—a charitable company limited by guarantee, with its registered office at Lacon House, Theobald's Road, London WC1X 8RW. Registered in England and Wales as charity number 1056453, company number 3135903.