A few words
About Us
Introduction
Pennsylvania Voters For Animals works to elect candidates and hold legislators accountable through our organized grassroots initiatives and strong voting bloc of animal advocates.
We are an all-volunteer team committed to supporting candidates and elected officials who work to enact comprehensive and compassionate animal protection legislation in Pennsylvania.
Our Mission
To advance comprehensive and compassionate animal protection legislation in Pennsylvania.
We strive to engage Pennsylvanians to serve as a strong, collective voice for all animals.
Our Vision
To end animal exploitation in Pennsylvania
and to create a community of compassion, respect and empathy for all beings.
We meet the urgent need to enact strong laws and regulations to effectively protect all the animals in Pennsylvania.
Our Focus
Introduction
Pennsylvania Voters For Animals (PAVFA) is a non-partisan 501c4 nonprofit organization established in 2023 to provide all animals a strong, effective voice in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
PAVFA was founded to meet the urgent need to enact strong laws and regulations to effectively protect all animals in Pennsylvania. PAVFA focuses exclusively on political advocacy for animals in Pennsylvania by:
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Informing and mobilizing a grassroots coalition of Pennsylvania advocates for animal protection legislation.
PAFVA actively participates in grassroots events such as festivals, human and pet food donation drives, animal rescue and shelter adoption events, craft shows, and human-focused and animal-focused charity events to share information with community members about key issues affecting animals in Pennsylvania. By sharing information, community members and voters are mobilized to take action and contact their Pennsylvania elected officials. This grassroots approach by PAVFA helps hold elected officials accountable and advance support of strong animal protection and anti-animal cruelty legislation
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Lobby for stronger laws to halt animal cruelty, abuse, and neglect.
PAVFA works to build a coalition of animal rescue partners and animal protection advocates to work together to identify animal cruelty, neglect, exploitation, suffering, and abuse. PAVFA then partners with state and local officials to write, propose, amend, and enact laws to protect animals. Additionally, PAVFA shares information with government officials and proposes solutions on critical issues affecting animals. These lobbying efforts help uphold our mission to advance animal protection in PA.
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Independently help elect candidates who support animal protection legislation.
PAVFA strives to ensure that humane state legislators are elected in Pennsylvania. PAVFA is committed to ensuring that voters are kept apprised of state-level candidates who are committed to introducing and passing animal protection laws focused on abolishing animal cruelty, neglect, exploitation, suffering, and abuse in Pennsylvania.
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Our commitment to all animals and to all in our community
PAVFA is committed to ensuring ALL animals have a strong political voice in Pennsylvania. PAVFA works with state and local officials who hold the responsibility to pass crucial legislation to address all forms of animal cruelty, neglect, exploitation, suffering, and abuse. As a commitment to our broader community, PAVFA supports diversity, equity, and gender identity equality, as well as inclusion of BIPOC persons, and the LGBTQIA+ community.
We can help Pennsylvania’s animals with your support! There are many ways for you to make an impact! Please join our PAVFA volunteer team. Sign up for our news alerts. Join us at our events. Share our social media posts. Tell a friend about PAVFA. Go vegan. Donate to help support our efforts.
INITIATIVES
End Live Animal Sales in Retail and Online Pet Stores.
End the Practice of Non-therapeutic Animal Mutilations (Declawing (Cat), Tail Docking, and Ear Cropping (Dog).
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End Animal Killing Contests.
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End Traveling Animal Circuses.
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End Roadside Zoos.
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Shutdown Puppy Mills (Commercial Dog Breeding Operations).
Explore our current animal protection issues
Our Team
Suzanne Gonzalez, PAVFA Co-Founder and Board President
Suzanne Gonzalez is a Pennsylvania resident and has worked for many years as a Registered Nurse and as senior management within the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Since retirement, Suzanne focuses her time and energy advocating for the advancement of more robust animal protection legislation, rescuing animals in need (including farmed animals), and serves as a volunteer for several animal rescue organizations.
Through her animal rescue work, as well as her grassroots advocacy and activism, Suzanne has identified an urgent need for the enactment of stronger, more impactful animal protection legislation across her home state of Pennsylvania. Her vision and commitment to forging a more compassionate and caring community for PA’s animals led her to establish the 501-c4 non-profit organization, Pennsylvania Voters For Animals (PAVFA). Suzanne is also deeply committed to putting her compassion into action by embracing a vegan lifestyle since 2015.
Suzanne resides in Bucks County, PA with her loving and supportive husband. She holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing. Suzanne is the grateful recipient of The Humane Society of the United States’ The 2016 HSUS-PA Volunteer of the Year Award.
Jennifer Ramos-Buschmann, PAVFA Co-Founder and Board Secretary
Jen is an environmental specialist, but she considers helping protect animals to be her true life’s work. She has been an animal and nature lover since she was little, but it wasn’t until 2017 that she made the connection to go vegan. Since then, she has been active as an animal rights activist and group organizer, an animal photographer, and an animal rescuer. Jen is grateful to have the opportunity to accomplish a lot for the animals with PAVFA.
Jen spends most of her free time with her adopted fur babies, hiking, and rock climbing.
Karen E. Winkler, PAVFA Co-Founder and Board Treasurer
Karen received her BS in Public Administration from Shippensburg University, a MA in Clinical-Counseling Psychology from LaSalle University, and a Certificate in Communication for Professionals from University of Pennsylvania.
Karen earned a Certificate in Canine Management and Training from Kutztown University, and is a volunteer dog handler at the Bucks County SPCA and also volunteers as an animal foster parent and animal transporter for several local animal organizations. Karen is a member of the Bucks County Animal Response Team and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) Animal Response Team.
Karen also serves as a volunteer as the HSUS PA Education Training Coordinator and received the HSUS PA Deputy District Volunteer Leader Award. She is the founder of the Peaceable Kingdom Conference, Bucks County’s only animal conference.
Karen’s leadership experience includes more than 30 years’ experience in county government and the courts, working initially in the County Commissioners’ Public Information Office, then in the Domestic Relations Section. Her experience includes serving as a Hearing Officer, PACSES Coordinator/Trainer, Supervisor, Deputy Director, and Director. Karen retired from the courts in 2023.
Karen served as an instructor and the Program Supervisor of the Adult Basic Education program at the Bucks County Correctional Facility for 10 years and also volunteered with at-risk youth for a non-profit mental health/behavioral health organization.
Karen is an active member of the Bucks County League of Women Voters and has been a vegan since 2007.
Sheryl Petrillo, PAVFA Co-Founder and Board Member
Sheryl Petrillo is a passionate advocate for animals and animal rights. Sheryl embraced a vegan lifestyle in 2011 and forged a path into animal rights (AR) activism in 2017 after watching the documentary Earthlings. She spent the next two years leading local chapters of globally known AR groups and then decided to brand her own vegan AR organization called Animal Defenders Greater Lehigh Valley, which was incorporated as a 501c3 non-profit in October 2019.
One of her proudest achievements in animal advocacy happened in 2022. Sheryl visited a local pet store in May that sold puppies, and what she saw and experienced changed her life forever. She walked out the door in tears, vowing to herself to do something to stop the puppy mill pipeline in her hometown. In August, she presented to and asked the City of Allentown (Pennsylvania) City Council to enact an ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits in pet stores. On October 19, 2022, this third largest city in Pennsylvania, unanimously voted into law this humane pet store legislation.
Sheryl subsequently extended this impact to Bethlehem, Easton, and Forks Township Pennsylvania, replicating this tremendous success offering protections for our animal friends. Sheryl continues to work tirelessly with local municipalities in enacting stronger, more comprehensive animal protection legislation, and was proudly awarded the HSUS “Advocates We Love” award in 2023 and was one of Lehigh Valley Style Magazine’s Influential Women of 2023.
Sheryl has been a Registered Nurse (RN) since 2005, enjoys being a wife, a stepmom, and a mom to a diverse family of rescues—two dogs, two cats, eight rabbits, a chinchilla, and a snake.
Her life’s motto is simple yet powerful: “One person can make a difference.” She continues to embody this belief in every aspect of her advocacy and in her daily life.