By Tanya Drobness
Chris DeRose is not an animal lover. He has never owned a pet and he doesn’t go to the zoo.
Yet he is the founder and president of Last Chance for Animals – one of the largest international animal rights organizations.
Contradictory? Not really.
“I don’t want to be put into the category of ‘animal lover’ because it makes my argument stronger. I fight for them because animal exploitation is wrong – it’s plain wrong,” said DeRose, who starred in Aaron’s Spelling’s 1977 television series “San Pedro Beach Bums,” then left show business to dedicate his life to securing animal rights.
The non-profit organization that opposes using animals for science experimentation, entertainment, clothing and food was established in 1984, according to the organization’s Web site – www.lcanimal.org.
But DeRose’s mission started in 1977 when a dog strolled into his acting class. He took it home with the intention of giving it to a nearby shelter. But a bond had formed. The dog clung to his leg at the shelter, and DeRose had a sudden flashback – as a 5-year-old griping his mother’s leg before she left him in a New Jersey orphanage. He changed his mind about the dog, but the shelter forced DeRose to leave it behind. “That’s how it got started. It was the first time I realized that animals have intelligence, have feelings.”
During the 1980s, DeRose and his team of activists launched several non-violent demonstrations, garnering national media coverage. By the mid-1990s, they expanded their mission to working on vivisection, pet theft, fur and circuses.
The group has since developed a reputation for their investigations, which led to the first-ever incarcerations of animal abusers. “We’re the only group that has ever done this,” said DeRose, adding that Congress is reviewing the Pet Safety and Protection Act he introduced, which would outlaw all U.S.D.A. licensed class B dealers who steal pets under false pretenses and sell them to research laboratories.
And even though DeRose works nearly a hundred hours a week, he accepted the role of a mafia boss in Desire, a new show scheduled to air September 5 on MyNetwork. DeRose said the move to television has helped voice his cause. “We’ve been able to get more publicity than we’ve been able to get through (public relations) firms in the last five years,” DeRose said. “But fighting for animal rights is my first priority. It’s my mission.”
Dog Fight!
