If you follow Ricky Gervais on social media, you’re well aware the comedian speaks his mind when it comes to eliminating animal cruelty. From fighting against fox hunting to emptying the tanks at Sea World, the 54-year-old actor is opening up to ET Canada in a new interview about being a voice for animal rights.

“I’ve just never understood animal cruelty. Even as a kid I was just like, why would you want to hurt an animal?,”; Gervais tells Matte Babel.

Gervais, whom we caught up with on the set of his new Netflix show “Special Correspondents”;, explains the role social media has to play in spreading his gospel.

“That’s the best thing about social media – you really can rally the troops,”; he says. “You can get things heard.”;

Most recently, Ricky has been increasingly vocal in his fight against the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, an annual event in China where 10,000 dogs are slaughtered in the name of edible tradition.

Through his tweets, Gervais rallied support from celebs like Gisele Bundchen, Sia, Ruby Rose and Simon Cowell, all who retweeted their support to put an end to the horrifying event.

Despite his celebrity-backed best efforts, the “Derek”; star (whose disappointment over Yulin’s decision to hold their annual animal slaughter came in the form of a tweet in appreciation for another festival in Nepal) tells us there is still a long way to go.

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“You wanna attach a real stigma to animal cruelty and I’m still trying to get things like bull-fighting banned.”;