SPEAK (Supporting and Promoting Ethics for the Animal Kingdom) is proud to be Arizona's first animal rights organization. We address animal protection issues on every level: local, statewide, regional, national, and international. We know that collective action provides the strongest voice for animals. Our mission to create a more cruelty-free world for animals involves a twofold approach: ongoing
educational efforts coupled with active resistance to any form of animal abuse. Current targets include the Tucson Rodeo, Banner University Medical Center (BUMC), Rillito Park Racetrack, animal circuses that occasionally perform in Tucson, and animal retailers that source their puppies/kittens/rabbits from mill-bred operations. The following are examples of some notable SPEAK activities; past and present:
* SPEAK worked with Tucson Dog Protection on a successful campaign to improve living conditions for the greyhounds at Tucson Greyhound Park. Ultimately, in June of 2016, our additional collaboration with Massachusetts-based Grey2KUSA resulted in the elimination of dog racing in Arizona and the closure of Tucson Greyhound Park.
* SPEAK conducts annual protests against animal cruelty at the Tucson Rodeo. Our resistance has included substantial collaboration with Chicago-based SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect & Kindness). Our efforts have produced numerous undercover videos from inside the Tucson Rodeo arena depicting blatant animal abuse. That video footage has been made available to local TV news media for public broadcast, which has provided the community at large with a revealing close-up view of horses and bulls being electrically shocked just before leaving the chutes during competition, as well as trauma to calves and other animals.
* SPEAK protested all local performances of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus since 2008. Our resistance consisted of signs, leafleting, a looping video presentation depicting animals abused in circuses, and a continual megaphone narration of the USDA reports documenting the circus’s many violations of the Animal Welfare Act. In early 2017, after decades of resistance on a national scale, Feld Entertainment finally shut down the 146-year-old circus.
* SPEAK organized monthly carpools from Tucson to Scottsdale to participate in a successful two-year campaign against Dolphinaris Arizona, a dolphinarium that imprisoned and exploited eight bottlenose dolphins in a theme park located in the Sonoran Desert. By the end of the campaign, half of the dolphinarium's "inmates" had already died; a 50% mortality rate. Finally, the facility was shut down and the remaining four dolphins were relocated to a seaside facility.
* SPEAK has actively campaigned against local animal retailers that source puppies and/or kittens and/or rabbits from mill-bred operations. Our first target, Petland, closed both of its Tucson stores years ago. In late 2020, we targeted a new business called Puppy World, and after only three months in business in Arizona, the owner closed down and vacated the state.
