Mason Melito, a 19-year-old Point Pleasant native, never misses an opportunity to advocate for animals, humans in need, or the planet—whether it’s dressing up as a giant carrot to encourage presidential candidates to go vegan or encasing his feet in cement outside Liberty Media’s headquarters to urge the company to end its support of the deadly Iditarod. Melito just wrapped up travels to Alabama and Texas with Abduction, an award-winning virtual reality experience landing on college campuses across the country, in which visitors are abducted by aliens and subjected to a shocking experience similar to what animals endure in laboratories.
Mason Melito is arrested after speaking up for dogs at Liberty Media HQ in Englewood, Colorado. Credit: PETA
Mason Melito shares information with college students while on tour with Abduction in Texas. Credit: PETA
Melito’s most recent action follows his appearance at the Netflix Cup golf event, where he was arrested on his knees while pleading to executives of F1 and its parent company, Liberty Media, to end Liberty’s support of the Iditarod. He advocates for climate justice as cofounder of Greenpeace Jersey Shore and Sunrise Movement Point Pleasant Beach and is also a regular at vegan farmer’s markets, anti-dairy rallies, and tabling events, where he hands out literature about animal rights and teaches people how they can be animal allies. An advanced marketing intern for peta2—part of PETA’s youth division—Melito creates compelling content for the group’s TikTok and Instagram pages as well as Students Opposing Speciesism’s Instagram page.
“Whether he’s opening students’ eyes to the cruelty to animals taking place in laboratories on their college campuses or teaching people about how the dairy industry tears mother cows away from their calves, Mason Melito is a true leader and a tireless advocate for animals,” says peta2 Senior Director Rachelle Owen. “peta2 urges young people everywhere to look to Mason as an example of how they can make a difference for animals in their own lives.”
After Melito graduates from San Diego State University this spring, he’ll begin working full time for PETA’s International Grassroots Campaigns Department. In addition to his advocacy work, he’s passionate about traveling, hiking, exploring the outdoors, and spending time with his rescued dogs, Stella and Roxy.
peta2—whose motto reads, “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit peta2.com or follow the group on TikTok or Instagram.
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