Vegan activist Kenneth Michael Montville has passed away. Montville was taken by cancer yesterday, at the age of 43, after originally being diagnosed with colon cancer in 2023. At the time of his passing, Montville had been working as the Associate Director of Innovation and Execution at PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, having worked with PETA off and on since 2008, eventually landing a full-time role in 2012. At PETA, Montville had directed the 2012 short film Abduction: A Virtual Reality Experience, which was toured around universities throughout the US. More recently, Ken was instrumental in the National Institute of Health ceasing animal testing in their laboratories.
From PETA:
Kenneth’s world first collided with peta2 while he was taking a course called Issues in Primate Studies at Fanshawe College in Canada. He learned about how our closest nonhuman relatives are threatened by humans through bushmeat, deforestation, the entertainment and pet industries, and animal testing. While doing research for this course, he came across peta2’s “Save #99” campaign, which took action against the use of nonhuman primates in experimentation. Shortly after this campaign, he met some of his future colleagues while traveling on the Vans Warped Tour, went vegan, and applied for a job at PETA upon moving back to the U.S. Outside of work, he enjoys writing and playing music, painting, and watching his favorite shows and movies on repeat.
You can read PETA's tribute to Ken here. From Ken's wife, Rachelle, as posted to a GoFundMe for Montville's cancer treatment:
Ken was a man who saved bees and worms off the sidewalk after it rained. Who didn’t hesitate to jump out of the car and scoop up an injured goose or crow to give them a few moments of peace in this cruel world. He was the best in all of us. Compassionate and sweet to his core, not a mean bone in his body.
Ken dedicated his life to helping others—his life’s work, the cause he cared most about—was ending the use of animals in laboratories. Yesterday evening before he died, we saw a huge victory PETA has been working for for decades—a move towards non-animal testing at the NIH. He saw that. He helped make that happen. He knew. I’m comforted by that.
He didn’t care about money or status or ego, he just wanted to make the world a kinder place. And he did. He brought to life creative, unique campaigns to reach people with our Abduction VR, and was recently called “Ellie’s dad!” at the office for his work to bring Ellie, our mechanical elephant, to life.
She has visited tens of thousands of students in elementary schools to reach them about empathy to animals. He inspired countless people to become activists and make compassionate choices, far and wide across this country and others. His loss will be devastating, but we will carry on in his honor every single day.
Although originally from Boston, Montville went to university in London, where he formed the Straight Edge band In This Defiance with former members of Clear a Path, Day of Mourning, and Restless Are The Dead. In This Defiance were signed to Seventh Dagger Records before disbanding in 2007.
RIP Ken
