Dan
Mathews,
vice
president
of
People
for
the
Ethical
Treatment
of
Animals,
is
hard
to
ignore.
He
looks
like
a
model
and
swears
like
a
sailor,
and
somewhere
between
his
friendship
with
Pamela
Anderson
and
his
naked
protests
at
Harvard
University,
he’s
made
deep
and
lasting
changes
in
the
field
of
animal
rights.
Mathews
will
appear
at
the
K
Street
Borders
on
May
9
to
sign
copies
of
his
new
book
“Committed:
A
Rabble-Rouser’s
Memoir.”
Since
he
began
as
PETA’s
receptionist
in
the
late
’70s,
Mathews
has
wrangled
countless
celebrities
into
posing
for
the
“I’d
rather
go
naked
than
wear
fur”
media
campaign.
He’s
also
convinced
high-profile
fashion
designers
to
stop
using
animal
skins
in
their
clothing
lines
and
has
been
arrested
all
over
the
world
in
support
of
his
cause.
Refreshingly,
he’s
been
completely
honest
about
his
sexual
orientation,
refusing
to
separate
who
he
is
from
what
he
does.
“People
in
the
media
will
say
‘You
have
a
job
most
guys
would
kill
for,
you
see
Pam
Anderson
naked,’”
says
Mathews,
whose
relationship
with
the
actress
began
when
she
posed
for
a
PETA
campaign
in
a
bikini
made
of
lettuce.
“I
say
to
them
‘I’m
a
fag,
so
we
just
talk
about
hair
and
makeup.’
That’s
come
across
even
in
interviews
with
People
magazine.
If
people
see
that
you’re
comfortable
with
yourself,
they
will
be
comfortable
with
you.”
MATHEWS’
LIFE
WASN’T
always
so
glamorous.
Growing
up
poor
and
overweight
in
Southern
California,
he
was
a
frequent
target
of
homophobic
bullying.
The
nascent
activist
was
first
moved
to
become
a
vegetarian
when,
on
a
fishing
trip
with
his
father,
he
watched
a
flounder
that
lay
gasping
on
the
boat’s
deck.
The
fish
reminded
him
of
lying
on
the
floor
of
his
own
high
school
trying
to
compose
himself
after
being
called
“faggot”
and
punched
in
the
stomach.
Mathews
went
on
to
attend
American
University,
graduating
with
a
bachelor’s
degree
in
history.
Currently
living
in
Portsmouth,
Va.,
Mathews
has
parlayed
his
easy
nature
into
relationships
with
many
high-profile
animal
lovers.
He
met
Morrissey
on
The
Smiths’
1985
“Meat
is
Murder”
tour
and
convinced
the
artist
to
contribute
a
song
to
a
PETA
compilation
album.
Chrissie
Hynde,
k.d.
lang
and
The
B-52’s
were
recruited
for
a
later
animal
rights
music
tour.
The
success
of
these
and
other
celebrity
collaborations
helped
give
way
to
a
new
kind
of
activism.
Rather
than
promote
an
image
of
the
activist
as
a
dowdy,
ultra-serious
hippie,
PETA
embraced
pop
culture
and
helped
make
it
sexy
to
stand
up
for
your
beliefs.
“People
are
turned
off
by
political
things,”
Mathews
says.
“They
don’t
want
to
take
the
time
to
learn
things
that
seem
so
dour
and
serious.
It
became
clear
that
people
were
paying
less
attention
to
serious
things
and
more
attention
to
frivolous
things.”
THE
BOOK
TAKES
a
similar
approach
to
storytelling.
Through
all
of
the
humorous
incidents
and
exotic
locales
of
his
life
story,
Mathews
manages
to
sneak
in
a
good
amount
of
information
on
animal
cruelty,
animal
rights
and
what
it
takes
to
make
a
difference.
One
of
the
book’s
most
memorable
episodes
involves
a
protest
at
Harvard
in
2004.
Mathews
received
an
e-mail
from
a
Harvard
professor
asking
him
to
speak
at
an
extremely
popular
philosophy
class
titled
“Personal
Choice
and
Global
Transformation.”
Trying
to
make
a
point
to
a
class
of
young
idealists
(and
with
the
professor’s
urging
to
start
a
PETA-style
protest),
Mathews
staged
a
near-nude
protest
in
Harvard
Square.
The
event
drew
gaggles
of
onlookers,
garnered
national
media
attention
and
resulted
in
all
the
participants
being
arrested
for
indecent
exposure.
“Dan
is
the
definition
of
empathy,”
says
Lisa
Lange,
PETA’s
senior
vice
president
of
communications.
“He
is
driven
by
how
he
feels
in
his
heart
about
the
cruel
treatment
of
animals.
Every
bit
of
controversy
that
he
courts,
he
makes
sure
it
makes
sense,
and
in
the
end
what
people
talk
about
is
the
issue
itself.
He’s
brilliant
about
that.”
The
new
memoir
isn’t
Mathews’
first
published
work.
He
wrote
poems
for
a
Los
Angeles-based
punk
magazine
when
he
was
16,
and
he
freelanced
for
extra
income
during
his
early
PETA
days.
Years
later,
after
writing
an
article
for
Genre
magazine
describing
an
incident
where
he
had
lunchmeat
thrown
at
him
by
schoolchildren,
a
publisher
approached
him
about
writing
a
book.
(Incidentally,
Mathews
was
dressed
up
as
a
carrot
during
the
hilarious
salami-throwing
debacle,
which
opens
the
memoir.)
Mathews
says
he
wrote
the
book,
not
so
much
for
hardcore
vegetarians,
but
for
everyone.
“It’s
not
a
book
for
animal
activists,”
he
says.
“It’s
just
a
book
for
anybody
that
likes
adventure
and
wants
to
fling
themselves
out
in
the
world.
I
hope
it
opens
people’s
hearts
and
minds
a
little
bit
about
how
you
can
live
a
fuller
life
by
caring
about
something
and
also
by
not
being
such
a
sourpuss
about
life.”
