Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara March for Animal Rights

Actors and animal-rights activists Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara recently led a march in West Hollywood, CA to commemorate the 9th National Animal Rights Day. During the march, participants, including Phoenix and Mara, held the bodies of pigs, chickens, lambs, and other farm animals who have perished in factory farms and other places that mass-produce animals for human consumption. The event also included a short memorial service for the animals with music and speeches, followed by a celebration of the vegan lifestyle. Each year in 30 cities, participants take part in “a celebration of the animals in our lives, and the steps that are being made every year towards ending animals’ suffering and shifting humanity to a cruelty-free, plant-based (vegan) lifestyle,” according to National Animal Rights Day. This is not the first time Phoenix has participated in animal activism. In previous years, he narrated vegan documentary Earthlings, and subsequently Australian documentary Dominion, starred in a commercial for animal-rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and a video for Mercy For Animals.