Within the world of Harry Potter, a Pygmy Puff is a miniature animal with fluffy pink or purple fur that are popular pets at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An Erumpent, meanwhile, is a magical beast that resembles a rhinoceros whose horn contains a deadly fluid that causes objects to explode when injected, and Demiguise – like the one named Dougal who safely resided in Newt Scamander’s suitcase – are ape-like creatures with long, silky hair that have the ability to turn invisible.
Although none of these animals reside in the real world, the Protego Foundation – a non-profit animal rights organization – has launched campaigns centered on each of them in recent years nonetheless. While Pygmy Puffs, Erumpents and Demiguise may be fictional, however, the undertakings of the Protego Foundation are factual initiatives designed to raise awareness on issues affecting non-magical beasts of the twenty-first century.
“The main goal of the Protego Foundation is to have a wizarding fandom that is more considerate of the rights, feelings, and treatment of all creatures, regardless of species,” Kathryn Henzler, co-founder and executive director of the Protego Foundation, explains. “In essence, we want to encourage Harry Potter fans to extend the compassion that the Harry Potter series shows us to the animals in the real world.”
In order to accomplish this goal, the Protego Foundation connects-the-dots between the fictional magical beasts of Harry Potter and real animals of the factual world with inventive campaigns that tie the two together. The organization’s “Adopt a Pygmy Puff” campaign, for instance, addressed the shortage of homes available to dogs and cats in shelters by encouraging fans to adopt rather than acquire an animal from a pet store. “Erumpent Rescue,” meanwhile, was a two-fold initiative that featured pre-written letters that could be mailed to the Environment Ministry of South Africa in support of efforts to combat the poaching of rhinoceroses for their horns, as well as a fundraiser that benefited Saving the Survivors and Action for Rhinos. Lastly, “Find Dougal” highlighted the threats that chimpanzees face from humans that likewise included a fundraiser for the Florida-based sanctuary Save the Chimps.
“We also have an ongoing petition to get vegan butterbeer at the Wizarding World parks,” Kathryn Henzler adds. “So some of the campaigns are more petition-based, some involve fundraising for organizations, and some are about awareness. We hope to start having campaigns that also have a direct action component to them, so people can actually engage in activism that isn’t just from behind a computer screen.”
The idea for the Harry Potter-oriented non-profit organization was the brainchild of animal rights advocate Tylor Starr. Although Starr had campaign management experience, he was hoping for a partner on the project that could provide logistical support. Although Starr did not personally know Kathryn Henzler at the time, he had met her sister through quidditch – the broom-flying sport in the Harry Potter series that found its way into the real world in 2005. Like Tylor Starr, Henzler was both a vegan and animal rights supporter, and the two eventually teamed up via email and put the various pieces together that would later become the Protego Foundation.
“It was actually quite a winding path to getting to launch the current iteration of the Protego Foundation,” Kathryn Henzler says of the non-profit’s origins. “We started out in 2015 as the Fwooper Foundation, but as time wore on and the new Fantastic Beasts movies were about to come out, we switched our title to the Fantastic Beasts Foundation. That caused some branding and trademark problems with Warner Brothers, so we came up with the moniker we have now. It’s actually the perfect name for what we do, since we want to protect the magical animals of the muggle world.”
For the uninitiated, protego is a “shield charm” that casts invisible armor around the user that protects them from both magical spells and physical attacks within the books and films of Harry Potter. The reason the Protego Foundation was able to find a relevant moniker – as well as effective tie-in names for its campaigns – is because the world of Harry Potter itself is filled with the same beliefs and philosophies that encompass the organization.
“Harry Potter has been and always will be about compassion for those who are different,” Kathryn Henzler explains. “Whether we are talking about muggle-borns, half-human beings, or fantastic beasts, there are a multitude of parallels in the series that show witches and wizards being empathetic and fighting for others’ rights. Our favorite example to talk about at the Protego Foundation is Hermione Granger, who – especially in the books – uses her wits and determination to do brave acts such as fighting for House Elf rights and freeing an abused dragon from its chains.”
While the original Harry Potter series is filled with such instances, the spin-off Fantastic Beasts prequel films have even more. Henzler mentions numerous examples, including “when Newt Scamander rescued Frank and brought him to America to set him free, and when he cared for multiple species of creatures in his briefcase that were on their way to extinction. We like to use these kinds of parallels that are factually present in the Harry Potter/Wizarding World universe because they are definitive examples that prove that the promotion of animal rights is actually an inherent message in those series.”
Kathryn Henzler first became a fan of Harry Potter in the third grade when her mother took her to the midnight release for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. “Since then, I have gone to every midnight release party and read the book until dawn, seen all of the films, made cosplays, and played collegiate quidditch,” Henzler says. “And then, of course, I started getting into activism in the fandom with our organization.”
Although fan activism may be a new concept for many, within the fandom of Harry Potter it is a combination that works quite well together. The Harry Potter Alliance, for instance, unites the Harry Potter community with social activism campaigns, while additional non-profits like the Potterhead Running Club raises money for various charities through virtual runs, and Transfiguring Adoption offers creative ways for parents to engage with foster children.
“Fandoms are the perfect place for charities to exist, because it is so simple to turn people’s passion for their favorite book or movie into passion for change, particularly when you can show parallels from the property that they are fans of,” Kathryn Henzler explains. “Harry Potter fans in general are known for being empathetic and compassionate people, so this fandom is, in my opinion, the best fandom within which these kinds of activism organizations can exist.”
It is that commitment from the fandom that gives Henzler optimism for the future of the Protego Foundation. “Right now we are only active in a small niche – and only known by a portion of the Harry Potter fandom – but we will eventually get to a point where when fans think of Harry Potter and activism, they will automatically think of us and what we do to help animals,” she says. “I can see us creating real and lasting change through getting all Harry Potter fans, and even some fans of other pop culture properties, to engage in petitions and campaigns. I think that if we can get our name out there even more and create the right campaigns, we can really change minds, influence decisions, and get huge wins against animal cruelty and endangerment.”
In the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander explains that he is writing a book on magical creatures “to help people understand why we should be protecting these creatures instead of killing them.” In 2015, Tylor Starr and Kathryn Henzler launched the Fwooper Foundation, the forerunner of the Protego Foundation, for similar reasons. “I think that any being that feels, thinks, and has relationships deserves the same respect, whether that being is human or any other species,” Henzler says. “To me, lessening the pain and suffering of any other being is a worthy cause. And getting other fans to see that animals deserve respect and ethical treatment is one of the most important things I think we can show to people.”
To paraphrase an old idiom, sometimes fictional and factual minds do indeed think alike.
Anthony Letizia