We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tiffany Stair. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tiffany below.

Tiffany, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

I became vegan in 2017. At the time, I assumed all vegans were activists and/or fighting for animal rights. I quickly learned that is not the case. I had a realization- if vegans represent less than 1% of the population, an even smaller fraction of those people are activists. I knew that where I needed to focus my energy. Revolution Philadelphia was then born. We became a nonprofit in 2023 and we are a grassroots, women-led organization that advocates for all animals. Our goal is to make positive changes for animals through legislation.

Tiffany, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Revolution Philadelphia is a grassroots, animal rights organization, led by women. I have two partners: Mansi, who is an Occupational Therapist, and Stephanie, who is an elementary school educator. For twenty years, I have been a nurse. I thrive when helping others, especially through illness and injury. My empathetic nature is not limited to humans….I have always cared about animals, but never realized the amount of cruelty and suffering that animals used for food, clothing and entertainment face. Revolution Philadelphia’s first campaign was to ban horse-drawn carriages in the City of Philadelphia. We spent two long years protesting, providing educational outreach, documenting lawlessness by the carriage company, gathering support from local residents and tourists, and meeting with city council. The only remaining carriage company in Philadelphia closed in January of 2023. Our councilman tasked with introducing the legislation wanted a replacement of the horse carriages to promote tourism. We secured a donor to provide an alternative to the horse carriages- electric carriages. Our e-carriages are now in the manufacturing phase and we hope they will be street ready in the coming months. We also now have legislation ready to be introduced by City Council and hope that a ban will be implemented as early as 2024. With the success of our first campaign, we decided to continue focusing our efforts on legislation. We currently have two campaigns in Philadelphia that we hope will encourage our city council members to introduce legislation. First is “Fur Free Philly”. We hope to ban the sale of new fur products in the City of Philadelphia. With all of the data about the cruelty involved in the fur trade, as well as many risks to public health, fur should no longer be considered a luxury item. Many designers have gone “fur free” because of the reasons above and we believe that the industry is slowly phasing out. Our other campaign is “Slaughterhouse to Greenhouse”. Philadelphia has approximately 10 live slaughter markets within the city. These markets are breeding grounds for diseases that pose a great risk to human health. With the recent pandemic and everything that occurred with Covid-19, we now know the next pandemic has a high likelihood of coming from a factory farm or slaughterhouse. We also know the tremendous environmental impact from slaughterhouses. The environmental degradation that comes from them will not allow cities, such as Philadlephia, to meet their goals to combat climate change. Our goal is to transition these markets to a more sustainable business model, such as a produce market. We hope to achieve this by forming relationships with the business owners and help them seek solutions for a successful transition. In the meantime, we would like our city to introduce a ban on such places. We feel that our leaders and policy makers have the ability to create lasting change for animals, but will not do so without pressure from their constituents. We empower people to speak up for animals to their legislators and continue to apply pressure until animal protection laws are in place.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I believe that education is key to grow animal rights organizations. Many people want to help, they just know how to help. While our organization primarily focuses on animal rights through legislation, we also recruit and train well intentioned people that want to become better activists and advocates for animals. Educating the public about the rights of animals and the cruelty that animals face, allows people to make better informed decisions when it comes to choosing what (or who) to eat, wear and use for entertainment purposes.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

We have a dedicated group of volunteers in Philadelphia that help us a great deal with reaching our goals. I think empowering individuals to speak up for animals is so important. While we have many highs and lows in our campaigns, we keep people engaged by making them feel that their prescence and their work is absolutely crucial to our mission.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://rev-philly.org/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/revolution_philadelphia?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RevolutionPhiladelphia?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Twitter: @rev_philly