What is Mercy For Animals?

Mercy For Animals (MFA) is a company that fights for the rights of all animals but is particularly focused on domesticated farm animals such as cows, pigs, chickens, etc. MFA also promotes a vegan diet mainly to cut down on the number of animals farmed and slaughtered each year. While a vegan diet can and does promote good health it also has another benefit of cutting down on the amount of animals slaughtered each year. If everyone slowly, over a long period of time, switched their way of eating from carnivores to herbivores, there would be less cows, pigs and chickens for slaughter and also for byproducts use. Lastly, MFA fights for the humane treatment of animals that are on factory farms. What I love about this company and also companies like PETA is that they face the realization the people are still eating meat. Animals on factory farms are suffering while they are alive and it is unnecessary. Despite the fact they are being raised for food doesn’t mean that they couldn’t live a happier, better-treated life.

Why do an internship at 31 years old? Why not go back to school instead? What can an internship give you that college can not?

I don’t see “Animal Rights Activist” listed on any college degree lists. I’d like to do something for the animals right now to help. Experience through an internship will give me the chance to take action and get experience in what I want to be doing in the future. Rotting away in a classroom where experience is simply not taught is not what I want to do.

An internship is a way to commit without committing fully. This will be a safe way for me to get a lot of experience with MFA without having to commit fully to a full-time job and then finding out I may not like it. My plan during this internship is to keep my full-time job while working at MFA part-time for the minimum internship requirement of one month. At that point which will be in October I will decide and MFA will decide if animal rights activism is a good fit for me and also if I’m well suited to work for their company. If I’m enjoying the work in the field then I can always apply at another company such as PETA if MFA turns out to not be an option. If I discover I love animal rights activism, my ultimate goal is to quit my job at the law firm and work in animal rights full time.

I want to do something fulfilling with my life. Helping out animals and promoting a vegan diet is the best way I know how to live a compassionate and fulfilling life. I’d like to be able to call animal rights my career, meaning my life’s passion, instead of just a job, meaning a paycheck doing work that I don’t personally believe in but happen to be good at.

Have you thought about going back to school for a degree that supports the basics of what you want to in your chosen work field of animal rights activism?

Yes! I would particularly enjoy working in the blogging sector or the legal sector of animal rights. If there was a blog writing journalism major out there I’d like to think I’d sign up in a heartbeat. At the very least, I’m open to taking some classes to get more become a better blogger.

I mention the legal sector meaning legal assistant. I wouldn’t want to go back for school for that since I have some experience in the field. I truly believe you can learn what you need to know with experience instead of in the classroom. So many life lessons and job lessons/experience are taught on the job and not in the classroom. Job experience is one thing I was never taught in college.

At this point I do not know a lot about what I will be doing for my internship although blogging was brought up. I love writing/blogging and if going back to school or taking some sort of class would help me get better at it, then I’d be willing to get schooling in that field.

What does the MFA internship have to do with my Sarathlete blog?

My official start date for my internship is 9/4/2012. I will post once a week to my blog to let you know what I’m doing on my internship, how I’m liking it, and what I’m learning about.

You can read my story of my beginnings as an animal activist. I hope it inspires you to follow your own animal activist path to become a vegan, volunteer at a dog/cat rescue or to become an activist in whatever way you find applicable to your life.

I want to share my journey along this new and exciting path with you.

Enjoy!
Sara Sawochka