Jackass Turned Animal Rights Activist

This isn't a prank!

You may be surprised that Jackass star Steve-O can be serious about something (anything, really), but he is NOT joking around when it comes to animal rights.

Steve-O's explained were his passion for animals comes from:

“With my history…I’m really sensitive to animal abuse. I graduated from Ringling Brothers Clown College. One of the days, they had the PR people come and give us a lecture about public relations. They said if anyone asks you about animal abuse, you have no opinion. You shut up, fall down. I wouldn’t have otherwise really formulated an opinion. They were so …it occurred to me that something was pretty messed up about it. I never worked on the Ringling Brothers Circus, I worked on another one. But the elephant trainee carried around a baton that had tassels to conceal this gnarly metal hook. I turned into a whistleblower….I have a real soft spot for elephants who are being abused. They walk 30 miles a day. They don’t confine themselves to tiny little quarters in blistering cold weather.”

Steve-O is currently fighting for the release of Lucy the Elephant from the Edmonton City Zoo.

[Image via WENN.]

Tags: activist, animal abuse, animal rights, animals, elephant, fight, jack, star, teddy, walk, what a jackass, zoo