Web site for lists of cruelty-free companies: www.CaringConsumer.com
About Kathy Guillermo:
PETA Director of Research Kathy Guillermo is responsible for defining the strategies for PETA's campaigns against animal experiments and communicating to the public why cruel, unreliable animal experiments must be replaced with modern, non-animal alternatives.
An 18-year veteran of PETA, Guillermo was originally hired to head PETA's cosmetics-testing campaign in 1989. She spearheaded efforts to persuade major corporations- including Estée Lauder and Gillette-to declare permanent bans on all animal tests. In the first three years of the campaign, PETA's list of cruelty-free companies grew from 50 companies to more than 300. Under Guillermo's direction, the campaign drew headlines for staging colorful events, such as hanging banners from the Eiffel Tower and the Brooklyn Bridge, and enlisting the aid of celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Kevin Nealon, and Kim Basinger.
Guillermo's 1993 book, Monkey Business: The Disturbing Case That Launched the Animal Rights Movement (National Press Books, foreword by Oliver Stone), details the cruelty case that launched then-fledgling PETA into national prominence. The landmark Silver Spring monkeys case also led to the first-ever conviction of an animal experimenter on cruelty-to-animals charges.
Guillermo has appeared on numerous television and radio programs to discuss animal rights issues, including NPR's Talk of the Nation, The Howard Stern Show, Buchanan & Press, CNN and Company, and many others. Her writing has been published by numerous major newspapers, including The Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, Newsday, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Houston Chronicle.
Guillermo graduated with highest honors from the University of California at Berkeley in 1981. For several years before joining PETA, she worked as a spokesperson for one of the country's largest animal shelters. She is married to award-winning journalist Emil Guillermo and has three children and five rescued dogs.
