James Cromwell wasn’t the only star people got to meet when PETA President Ingrid Newkirk brought her “Unstoppable” tour to New York City recently.

Before the evening was over, the audience at the West Side YMCA was introduced to the others: four PETA award recipients who put that unstoppable spirit into action.

Head of the Class

The members of New York University’s (NYU) Animal Welfare Collective, who received the Star Student Group Award, set out every day on a mission: to see that not a day goes by at the school without someone new getting active for animals.

The group runs a phone bank for animal-protection laws, hosts screenings of the documentary Earthlings, and gives away vegan food during the holidays. And that’s just for starters. Its most recent victory followed a months-long campaign to persuade NYU’s sustainable food hall to offer only vegan food for a one-week trial.

Any Time, Anywhere

Amy Zeidman Horowitz heads up NJ Farm Animal Save, but that barely scratches the surface of what she does for animals.

She tables at community festivals, organizes vegan potlucks, and protests at a calf and lamb slaughterhouse. Her group has paid for a billboard and pro-animal ads on trains, and when PETA called, she documented abuse at a circus and drove more than an hour to photograph a spiked fence that had impaled a deer—then helped us get those types of fences banned.

Amy’s children are also carrying the animal rights torch as peta2 campus representatives. Who knows—one day, they may take home the Star Activist Award, too.

Getting Under Their Skin

The heat is on, and Canada Goose is feeling it. Since the fur-peddling retailer arrived in New York last November, more than 100 demonstrations and three massive marches have been held to protest the company’s sanctioned slaughter of coyotes and the abuse of geese for its overpriced coats. Rob Banks organized every one of them.

That’s no surprise, because he’s particularly passionate about stopping the cruel fur trade. He also hits the streets to persuade fur-wearers to give him their fur collars to donate to wildlife rehabilitators and gets the media to cover this vital issue by organizing public shamings of fur-wearing celebrities.

The Fearless Fur Activist Award went to Rob, who is probably right now persuading someone to switch to cruelty-free fashion.

One for the Birds

Chickens may not realize it, but Dawn Ladd is their BFF. She knows that they’re intelligent, affectionate individuals, and when she goes to court to object to a religious ritual in which tens of thousands of chickens are slaughtered every year in New York, she also makes the case that they’re the most abused species on Earth.

If the life of one chicken was saved, that would be reason to celebrate. Dawn, who received PETA’s Hero for Animals Award, has helped save more than 1,000.

Her efforts don’t stop there. She’s the founder and president of Brooklyn’s Aurora Lampworks, which benefits PETA’s vital work in behalf of animals through our Business Friends program, as well as a member of our Vanguard Society.

Congrats to NYU’s Animal Welfare Collective and to Amy, Rob, and Dawn.

So, are you ready to be an unstoppable force for animals? You can get started here.

Written by Craig Shapiro