[2] Yourofsky was sponsored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) between 2002 and 2005, and has given many public lectures promoting veganism.

In 2010, Yourofsky's popularity quickly accelerated around the world (especially in Israel[3]) following the publication of a YouTube video[4] of him giving a speech at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

He was arrested 13 times between 1997 and 2001 and spent 77 days in a Canadian maximum security prison in 1999 after raiding a fur farm in Canada and releasing 1,542 mink in 1997.

[8] On March 30, 2017, Yourofsky announced the end of his activist life on his Facebook page, stating: "My tank is completely empty, so I will no longer be online or active in any capacity besides helping students with animal rights projects and answering emails from people who are beginning their vegan journeys.

[11] On March 30, 1997, Yourofsky, alongside 4 other members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), raided a fur farm in Blenheim, Ontario, Canada, and released 1,542 mink.

A day after sending his resignation letter, he received a telephone call from Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, who offered him a job.

It is therefore understandable that education authorities in Israel should be reluctant to allow animal advocates like Mr Yourofsky access to the classroom.

On the other hand, there is an argument to be made that the treatment of animals by the food industry is so excessively heartless, and such an affront to natural justice, that we who by our silence tacitly consent to these outrages deserve to be shocked out of our sleep.

In the long run, Mr Yourofsky may well be doing us a larger moral service by confronting us, including the most sensitive of us, by the spectacle of the crimes we participate in.

"[27] In a 2005 interview, Yourofsky criticized the Humane Society of the United States, the strategies used by PETA, and its president, Ingrid Newkirk.