Tim Gunn, Ellen DeGeneres named PETA's people of the year for 2009

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has named Tim Gunn and Ellen DeGeneres its Man and Woman of the Year for their animal-friendly stances on issues like veganism and fur in fashion.

Gunn, whose hit show "Project Runway" is fur-free, is so emphatic about his anti-fur stance that he narrated a video for PETA detailing the abuses suffered by animals killed in the name of fashion.  DeGeneres -- who with wife Portia de Rossi received the Humane Society of the United States' Wyler Award earlier this year for their efforts on behalf of last year's Proposition 2 ballot initiative -- has used her popular talk show as a platform to discuss issues like factory farming and veganism since giving up animal products in 2008.

The group's people of the year "show us that one person really can make a difference in the world by rejecting cruel deeds in favor of compassionate acts," PETA co-founder and president Ingrid Newkirk said.  "Their message that animals must be treated kindly and respectfully has reached scores of people, and many of them have changed their buying habits, all because Gunn and DeGeneres spoke up for the voiceless."

Previous PETA people of the year include Oprah Winfrey, who highlighted puppy mills, factory farms and a vegan diet on her talk show, and West Virginia senator Robert Byrd, who has used his political position to draw attention to issues like dog fighting and humane slaughter legislation.

RELATED:
Fashion guru Tim Gunn talks fur (specifically, what's wrong with it)
Humane Society of the United States presents 23rd Genesis Awards

-- Lindsay Barnett

Tim Gunn photo: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times.  Ellen DeGeneres photo: Chris Pizzello / Associated Press

Comments

[L.A. Voter]

Why does Ellen DeGeneres continually get a free ride from corporatized humane organizations like HSUS and PETA when she has yet to make amends for not only attacking a local rescue group that trusted her with one of its rescued dogs, but deliberately turning the wrath of her large (and clearly somewhat unbalanced) audience on these same rescuers?

Ellen's calculated on-air histrionics, including deliberately lying to her audience, resulted in local L.A. rescuers receiving death threats. She explicitly told her audience that she had signed the adoption contract, when in fact Portia de Rossi signed it, then she encouraged her audience to believe that the terms of that contract, which existed to protect the dog, were unimportant compared to what SHE wanted, which was to give that young dog away to whoever she felt like, with no regard for the safety and welfare of the dog. Yes, her hairdresser's children liked the dog. But any qualified rescuer knows you don't adopt a dog out on the whim of children, who aren't mature and focused enough to be entrusted with the long-term care of an animal that may have a lifespan of fifteen years or more.

SHE created the problem and then tried to use the bully pulpit of her show and her loose-cannon audience members to coerce a small rescue group into abandoning its mission to protect dogs, or face her wrath. It was a disgusting display of celeb-entitlement and narcissism run amok, and she should be shunned by "humane groups" until she admits she was wrong to lie to the public, wrong to try to unilaterally break a contract that was the only means by which she ever got the dog, wrong to imply any wrongdoing on the part of the rescue in retrieving the dog, and unfathomably malicious in deliberately exposing those rescuers to public hostility and threats of violence.

I used to like Ellen. I thought she was funny and self-effacing. But this incident revealed her true selfish and egotistical nature, and I wish the humane community would stand by its own and not just cash any check it gets.

That being said, congratulations to Tim Gunn. I think he's been great in speaking out against fur, and I hope one day he can do the same for leather.

[Gus]

L.A. Voter, you are right on. I saw this headline and just shook my head. Ditto everything you said. I haven't been able to watch Ellen since that fiasco. Well put.

[Former Fan]

Agreed. And what about those credit card commercials she did that were full of animals? We all know how many of the so-called "show biz" animals are treated.