After middle-schooler Kevin Pratt saw how many fish died at his local park's “Goldfish Day,” he lobbied city officials to change the event, in which kids tried to catch fish who had been dumped in a chlorinated swimming pool, to a cruelty-free contest using plastic fish. “They're goldfish, but they're still creatures of this Earth,” Kevin told a reporter for The Chicago Tribune. “Whatever their purpose is, they should still be given a chance to live.”

Each August, children on the Icelandic island Vestmannaeyjar conduct night-time rescue operations to save pufflings, migrating baby puffins who fall to the ground after mistaking the city's lights for the moon. The puffling rescue is very important to the children, who release the birds on the beach the next morning. Staying out late to find the pufflings is “a lot better than Halloween,” said rescuer Arny Osvaldsdottir.

When Jazmyn Cherie Wilburn had to give a persuasive speech to her college communications and public speaking class, she used PETA facts, leaflets, stickers, and videos to prove her point: A vegetarian diet is best! Not only did she receive an “A” on her speech, the then-13-year-old prodigy even convinced four of her 20- to 46-year-old classmates to go vegetarian on the spot.