Hello, I'm Chelsea. This spring, I'll be running 13.1 miles in Cincinnati's Flying Pig Half Marathon. USA Today recently named the Flying Pig the Best Marathon in America, but I aim to make the best even better by dedicating my run to PETA's work for pigs and other animals used in experiments.

Pigs are social, playful, and protective animals who are known to dream, recognize their names, and lead social lives of a complexity previously observed only in primates. Most humans wouldn’t dream of treating their dog the way pigs are treated, even though pigs are able to experience the same pain, joy, fear, and misery that canines do. In addition to the millions of pigs who are killed on factory farms annually, tens of thousands more are abused in U.S. laboratories. PETA is working to protect these outgoing, sensitive animals.

Pigs don’t have human anatomy, so using them for medical training in attempts to learn about human health and care is pointless at best, yet medical training programs across the U.S. still practice invasive medical procedures on live pigs. PETA works to help end these archaic practices and urges the programs conducting them to adopt humane, human-relevant models instead. These efforts have prevented countless pigs from experiencing painful and ultimately fatal procedures. PETA has also pressured two automaker giants to slam the brakes on animal testing and ban experiments on animals, including gruesome crash tests using pigs’ bodies. 

You can read more about PETA’s victories for animals used in experiments here.

If you can, please support PETA’s work for pigs and other animals by donating to my fundraiser today!

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who supported my run! My slow pace meant people had plenty of time to see the message on my running singlet that read "Every Animal is Someone." Thanks to my personalized running bib, the crowd cheered me across the finish line with shouts of "Go Vegan!"