Pierre Grzybowski       
Grassroots Coordinator, Campaigns
The Humane Society of the United States
Gaithersburg, Maryland

How long have you been working in your current career? What did you do before?
About five years ago, I started working with an animal rights group at my college.  Soon after graduation, I took a job in the field starting as a receptionist, and quickly moved to the grassroots coordinator at The Fund for Animals.

Why did you decide to pursue this career?
There is just so much potential in the animal protection field for “making the world a better place,” and not just on animal issues.  For example, if a person decides to reduce or eliminate meat, eggs, and dairy from their diet for animal welfare reasons, they will also be deciding, perhaps unknowingly, to eat a diet that is often better for the environment and their health. 

What traits would you say make your job “humane”? 
I discuss with people how the individual choices we make as consumers, like reducing or eliminating meat, eggs, and dairy from our diet, or not wearing fur, are as important as passing laws when it comes to helping animals.  And I help grassroots organizers do the same thing, by giving talks, helping plan campaigns, and assisting with demonstrations and tabling events.

What kind of education and training did you get before you started your first professional job?
I have a B.S. in Environmental Policy and Planning, which allows me to appreciate and discuss in detail how a vegetarian or vegan diet generally has a smaller ecological footprint than a meat-centered diet.  It was actually the study of the environmental impacts of factory farms that exposed me to the widespread abuse of animals on these operations.

How did you find your first job in your profession?
I was living with a staff person of an animal protection organization while doing my job search, and she told me that they needed someone to answer phones for two weeks.  That was the foot in the door.   

What are your duties in your current position?
I set up information tables at conferences and festivals, organize demonstrations, and contact our members and grassroots activists about issues we need their help on. Much of my job involves engaging activists, members and concerned citizens in our campaigns, empowering them and providing them with the tools they need to make a difference.  I also provide materials and input to grassroots activists organizing their own events.

What do you like most about your job?
Watching new activists grow into leaders.

What do you like least about your job?
Knowing what goes on in canned hunts, cockfighting pits, fur farms, and battery-cage egg facilities, and not being able to share that with everybody.

What’s a typical workday like for you?
I travel a good deal, setting up information tables at various events around the country.  When in the office, I often spend several hours a day reading and responding to emails, and setting up future tabling events and planning demonstrations.  Occasionally, I take part in special projects, like when I went to Canada in March as part of the seal hunt observation team.

What types of training or experiences do you need to keep up-to-date in your field?
I usually spend at least an hour a day reading articles about the issues I work on.  I also frequently watch footage taken in factory farms, slaughterhouses, and fur farms.  Of course, personally witnessing what happens to animals is the best way to be knowledgeable and credible on an issue, so the trip to the ice floes off Canada to film the seal hunt, though traumatic, was invaluable.

What keeps you motivated to keep doing your work? 
The thought that there are future leaders on animal issues out there who simply have never seen a picture of a pig in a gestation crate or footage of a fox in a tiny, barren cage on a fur farm.

What personal traits do you think someone needs to be successful in your field?
The ability to be exposed to animal abuse and institutionalized cruelty on a daily basis, and have it motivate you to work harder, rather than let it wear you down.

What advice would you give to a college student or other young person considering entering your field?  What advice would you give to someone who’s changing fields and is interested in a career in your profession?
There is no substitute for a good track record in the area in which you hope to work.  Some of the best people working for The HSUS volunteered with grassroots or national groups for years before they got a paying job.  At the same time, a lot of great people come from the for-profit world, bringing with them all the valuable corporate tactics and skills they learn in that environment.  Finally, many people stay in the for-profit world, but work to help animals by changing things within their own profession, or volunteering their time or skills. 

Anything else you’d like to add about your work or about careers helping animals?
Animal protection groups need the support of activists in every community to make our work more effective and to achieve victories faster.  You do not have to work for an animal protection organization to make a difference. 

July 2005