PETA to move 40 Norfolk workers to Los Angeles

Go west, young animal lovers.

PETA will transfer about 40 employees - a quarter of its staff - from its Norfolk headquarters next summer to capitalize on the bright lights and big names of Los Angeles.

The organization will move its campaigns, youth and online marketing divisions to Los Angeles, said Tracy Reiman, PETA's executive vice president.

"These departments conceive of and carry out those eye- and headline-catching, envelope-pushing and just plain quirky actions that have helped put animal rights on the map," she said.

PETA currently employs about 160 people locally. It moved its headquarters from Rockville, Md., to Norfolk in 1996. It opened a Los Angeles office in 2006, Reiman said.

PETA is expanding that office, she said, to be closer "to the city that defines popular culture and cultivates big personalities and bigger ideas. We can have a big impact on the small screen and the larger screen."

PETA doesn't plan to move its headquarters, which sit on Front Street, at the edge of the Elizabeth River. "We love this building," Reiman said. "We intend to stay here forever." It will continue to house "our most important departments," including laboratory and undercover investigations, she said.

"We've been able to make an impact on this community in ways we never imagined," Reiman said.

Locally, PETA has spayed or neutered more than 57,000 animals, she said, provided 4,500 doghouses, and helped turn Norfolk into "one of the most wonderful vegan cities in the country."

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com