Mimi Bekhechi -
Fighting for Animals on the Front Line
Mimi manages PETA UK's operations and special projects. She moved to London from Edinburgh a little more than two years ago to work for PETA. She's fiercely loyal, which means if you're one of her friends, family members or cats (she has three, Ralphie, Stella and Zazu), you're stuck with her for the long run. She hums constantly, but not actual songs – just sounds. Unfortunately, she's also tone deaf, which means her humming can be quite annoying. Mimi has a childlike disdain for bedtime, although every day when she wakes up, she thinks she really should've gone to bed earlier. She loves everything about the '80s and wishes people still made '80s movies with '80s soundtracks. Bon Jovi makes her happy; changing duvet covers does not. Other things that make Mimi happy are geography tests, red wine and the Eurovision Song Contest. She is the most Capricorn of all the Capricorns.
One thing that everyone who knows Mimi will tell you is that she is very proud to work at PETA. "I've always had so much respect for PETA's willingness to go to any lengths for animals, but since working here and getting to know the people behind the brand, I now also feel really fortunate to be able to call these amazing people my friends".
Her two biggest desires are to see animals freed and to have a softball batting cage in her garden (when she actually gets a garden).
© iStockPhoto.com / Kameleon007
PETA – and everyone who cares about animals worldwide – is elated that the Catalan Parliament has banned bullfighting. It was clear that the tide had turned when 180,000 signatures were collected in support of the ban. The people have spoken: cruelty to animals – disguised as “tradition” – will no longer be tolerated. Various cities and towns across Spain, France, Portugal, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador have all recently declared themselves anti-bullfighting, and now Catalonia becomes the second Spanish region to… Read more.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) recently released a statement claiming that for the past several years, the skins used to make The Queen’s Guards’ distinctive bearskin caps now come from brown bears, not black ones. Sometime during the course of PETA’s campaign, they say, a switch was made.
One might well ask, “So what?” It is unlikely that bears care what colour they are when they are being shot for their hides, and it makes no difference to PETA if the MoD are using the skins from black, brown or,… Read more.
When my alarm clock went off at 5:30 last Saturday morning, I woke up smiling – not because waking up before the birds makes me happy but because I was heading out to Trooping the Colour (The Queen’s official birthday celebration) armed with 1,000 bear balloons and a whole lot of helium.
Allow me to elaborate. Trooping the Colour is an impressive display of pageantry in which more than 1,400 officers and men on parade march to the beat of 400 musicians, all in honour of the Sovereign’s birthday. This is an… Read more.
© iStockPhoto.com / DNY59
With pressure mounting as the 6th May General Election grows ever nearer, there’s a great deal of conflicting opinion about which tax proposals will help restore Britain’s failing economy. However, all the proposals I’ve seen have failed to include the one tax I would love to see introduced: an excise duty on meat, milk and eggs. Taxing “flesh foods” and animal secretions will help save animals, halt climate change and other environmental problems and reduce the… Read more.
© iStockPhoto.com / kcline
My life has gotten better since I made the decision to stop consuming meat, eggs and dairy products. I had my eureka moment about nine years ago when I woke up to the fact that my choice to eat meat meant I was actually paying someone to end the life of another living being – a being who, in all likelihood, had spent his or her whole life scared or in pain. I think I must have known on some level the impact… Read more.
