Bryan Pease

Bryan Pease is co-founder and volunteer executive director of the Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL), the original SoCal VegFest sponsor! Bryan is also an animal rights, environmental, and civil rights attorney with his own law practice in San Diego. Bryan has won cases shutting down illegal puppy stores, stopping restaurants from selling foie gras and stores from selling fur in violation of California law, and opened up dozens of shopping malls in California to free speech in the form of protests and vegan leafletting.

Bryan has also been a vegan since 1994 and studied vegetarian nutrition under China Study author Dr. T. Colin Campbell at Cornell University.

Recently, Bryan filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court defending California's Proposition 12 from a constitutional challenge by the pork industry, and the Court quoted an article referenced in Bryan's brief. Bryan also recently filed an amicus brief on behalf of Voters for Animal Rights (VFAR) supporting the City of New York in its challenge against a state agency that is a front for Big Ag, which had ordered the city not to enforce its ban on sale of foie gras from force fed ducks due to harm that could be caused to two farms upstate. The Court sided with the city and quoted from Bryan's brief. Bryan also recently won a judgment against the California Department of Fish & Wildlife's plan to bulldoze and destroy the Ballona Wetlands under the guise of "restoration."

When not in the courtroom, Bryan enjoys surfing, pickup basketball, and eating at his favorite vegan restaurants. Bryan lives in San Diego with his wife, Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi, who is also a public interest attorney, and their two dogs, Marky and Lucy.