School is ending and although I work on pageant business while at school, the pageant life will be picking up a lot more! I am soo excited for this opportunity to compete for the title of Miss New York. This is not an opportunity that is just presented. You have to earn it and I am so proud of myself for doing so! I have a lot of appearances coming up! I will be attending the opening of the regional animal shelter in Gloversville NY which I will also be volunteering at over the summer! The day after the opening of the animal shelter I will be heading to Schenectady to meet with Assemblyman Tedisco. It is important to me to get the input of public figures who have had a lot of experience in the animal rights world! As a lot of you know, I was privileged to be able to meet with Steve Caporizzo of Channel ten news. I am hoping to gather the information from Assemblyman Tedisco and add it to the advice that Steve was able to give me. ( I was permitted to call him Steve! :p) I will also be meeting with Wayne Pacelle, the President and CEO of the National Humane Society of the United States! If anyone knows of him you should really check out his new book "The Bond" which goes in depth about the importance of defending animals so that we can better protect not only them but our entire society. It is so exciting to meet with someone who is just as passionate about my platform as I am!

One of the main purposes of my blog is to not only keep you up to date on my appearances but to continue educating the public about animal abuse. I keep up on animal news and events so that we can be better aware of how important animals are to our society and our call to protect them. I recently read an article about an animal activist by the name of Camille Marino who was arrested on February 4th. The reason for her arrest was due to a protest against the torturous death of two monkeys at Florida University. She was arrested on charges that involved her campaign against the vivisections that took place. Her main protest target was Donal O'Leary, an animal experimenter. For the past 20 years Mr. O'Leary's experiments have been found to be in extreme violation of the Animal Welfare Act. With tax dollars he performed a horrifying experiment on a dalmatian named Queenie. Queenie had had a terrible life of anguish already after being abandoned and left in a shelter. She was very scared and in no way in control of anything that happened to her. O'Leary opened up her chest to insert a device into her. After a second surgery she was forced to run on a  treadmill with catheters sticking out of her and cuts that were leaking fluid. This caused her a great deal of pain and panic. Queenie later died of the devices that were surgically placed into her due to one of the devices breaking and getting into her bloodstream. Camille Marino was and is outraged as any animal lover/activist would be. She is willing to suffer any cost to help these animals who are put in ruthless positions of helplessness. It is men and women like her who show an example for the world that is above and beyond the expectation of an animal activist. Camille began to post information about O'Leary's experiments on the internet. She was met with a request that she stop posting his information through a court order even though his information has proven to be very easy to find on one's own. I wanted to tell Camille's story on my blog because I believe it is an amazing example of how far we must go to protect animals. It shows that it is not easy all the time to stand up for what you believe in and to protect another. Right now Camille is in need of overwhelming support that I hope we can give to her as fellow animal lovers and citizens of the United States. The lives of many animals that were lost in these experiments must be honored and we must prevent the further killing and torturing of animals in the future.
http://supportcamille.org/Support/

As Miss Empire Star I have been doing all in my power that I can to educate our society about these happenings. It is extremely important to me to start at young ages. I very much enjoy visiting elementary schools and talking to children about the importance of protecting their pets and with the advice I have been given by outstanding public figures I have made great strides in my fight for animal rights. I will continue to make appearances and meet with those who can help me make a difference. Please spread my message and help me in my endeavors!