Offering over forty clubs that range from debating in front of an audience to filming movies with friends, Albany High is well known for a variety of different academic related opportunities.

Students are privileged to create their own club if an appealing idea emerges that doesn’t necessarily fit with any of the other categories. Once approved by an administrator and supervised for a year, the club would then be deemed official and marked into school records.

Abby McCormick-Foley, a junior at Albany High, took a stand in 2011 to defend animal rights and continues doing so this year. She is the founder of the Animal Rights Club, which happens to be one of the very first clubs that strictly focuses on the strong concern regarding animal abuse.

Practically everyone will agree that Abby is a greatly concerned student who strongly believes in equality for all. “All” is a key word to her since it covers not only humans, but anything that’s alive. Since Abby didn’t like the way animals were being treated, she wanted to make a change. After establishing the Animal Rights Club (supervised by Mr. Nizinkirck), students that have similar views to Abby’s joined, hoping to get the word out.

Last year, the club rallied in several areas, once in Downtown Albany in front of the Times Union Center after realizing that circus animals (specifically elephants) were not cared for properly, not placed in their natural environment, and abused in order to learn the archaic tricks. In addition to this, certain documents were revealed (assumedly written by circus staff themselves) backing this reasoning. One stated, “during USDA inspections in CEC, we tried to hide injuries such as rope burns from USDA inspectors by putting mud on their [the elephants’] legs. Hot shots are kept hidden.”

Abby informs The Nest that although a bit of risk won’t bother her in getting the word out, her team wouldn’t have to worry about police since they are given the right to protest as long as they are several feet away from the building itself. To protest, students design effective posters showing their support for the cause. “Animals belong in the wild,” “Ringling kills baby elephants,” and “Stop circus suffering” are just several among many protest signs used during their fight against animal abuse.

According to humanesociety.org, in reported animal cases, dogs happen to be the most common victims of animal cruelty in 2007, accounting for 64.5% of the cases, followed by cats at 18% and other animals at 25%.

If you’re interested in helping Abby and her team against animal abuse, you can attend team meetings every Thursday in room 232.