Teresa Cooper
Teresa first took a stand for animals in 1975 when she refused to dissect a frog in her high school biology class—even though her teacher told her that she would fail the assignment if she did not dissect. Her desire to help animals was reignited 26 years later when she was traveling on Interstate 5 with her daughter. “There were hundreds of acres of cows on their way to the local slaughterhouse,” recalls Teresa. “They had no water, no food—you couldn’t even see the ground … just shoulder-to-shoulder cows. All we could do for them was cry.”