Carrie Symonds is named Peta’s Person of the Year: PM’s fiancee’s ‘activism gets results’ say animal rights group after she highlighted plight of ‘slave’ monkeys picking coconuts
- Carrie Symonds has been named Person of the Year by animal rights charity Peta
- The organisation said the prime minister’s fiancee’s ‘activism gets results’
- She campaigned against wet markets as well as the fur trade and trophy hunting
Carrie Symonds has been named Peta’s Person of the Year as the animal charity said the PM’s fiancee’s ‘activism gets results,’ after she campaigned against the plight of monkeys being used to pick coconuts.
Ms Symonds has been vocal in her opposition to wet markets, the fur trade and trophy hunting, gaining praise from Peta as it announced her as one of its most influential activists of 2020.
Earlier this year she raised awareness of monkeys being used as slave labour to pick coconuts, helping to get products support the practice taken off British shelves.
Carrie Symonds, pictured with fiancee Boris Johnson, has been named person of the year by animal rights group Peta
In July her campaigning paid off as four firms, including Boots and Waitrose, removed products using slave monkeys from their shelves, Ms Symonds said it was ‘time all supermarkets do the same’.
Declaring Ms Symonds its Person of the Year, Peta’s president Ingrid Newkirk told the Daily Telegraph: ‘Carrie Symonds is a fearless force for good when it comes to making the world a kinder place for animals,’
‘Peta is delighted to honour her for using her platform to encourage people to spare a thought for our fellow animals whom we share this planet with.’
Peta praised Ms Symonds’ campaigning to put an end to monkey’s being used for slave labour
Ms Symonds managed to raise awareness of the practice and major brands such as Waitrose and Boots stopped stocking related products as a result
Last year the 34-year-old slammed people who wear fur as ‘sick,’ calling businesses who sell such products ‘nuts’.
She is also vocally opposed to trophy hunting.
Last year, in her first public speech after Boris Johnson was appointed prime minister, she told a crowd: ‘A trophy is meant to be a prize, something you’re awarded if you’ve achieved something of merit that requires great skill and talent.
‘Trophy hunting is not that, it is the opposite of that. It is cruel, it is sick, it is cowardly and I will never, ever understand the motivation to do it.’
Ms Symonds has also raised opposition to wet markets, the global fur trade and trophy hunting
Ms Symonds, who gave birth to baby Wilfred in April, was also praised by Peta for her call to ban wet markets earlier this year, following links to the Covid-19 outbreak in China at such a site in Wuhan.
The campaigner has called for an end to the global wildlife trade and works as a communications specialist at the marine charity Oceana.
She is currently on maternity leave but is expected to return to campaigning in 2021.