“Not only was the price of milk artificially inflated, but this scheme ultimately also cost 500,000 young cows their lives.”

–

“Vegans are often penalised for ‘forcing’ their child to eat like them. But it’s unreasonable to expect a vegan parent to give their children chicken nuggets and cheese toasties just because this is what most people do. All parents make decisions on behalf of their children – left to their own devices, kids would wear toilet paper and eat glitter.”

– Vegan diets for children aren’t abusive – raising a child to eat meat is actually more extreme

Hey guys! Last month, Catskill Animal Sanctuary had a big event and it was full o’ vegan fun! The event, Cocktails and Cow Tales, raised over $66k for the lovely animals of CAS! PLUS there was hella delicious vegan food by the one and only Jay Astafa (pictured above with CAS founder and director Kathy Stevens; photo by Ruth McDade). 

If you aren’t familiar with CAS, it has a v interesting history:

Giving up a thriving eleven-year teaching career, Kathy Stevens bought a disastrously rundown farm on a vast number of acres, and with sheer determination, boundless compassion, and limited funds, turned it into an acclaimed haven for abused livestock, the Catskills Animal Sanctuary. Her books, Where the Blind Horse Sings and Animal Camp, present heartening stories of the difficult work that has gone into saving more than 2,000 lives since the sanctuary’s 2001 founding.

In addition to that, Stevens also knows how to throw a killer vegan extravaganza. You may now drool over the food pics:

If you couldn’t make it to the event, don’t worry! You can still help out the sanctuary and their sweet animals. Go here to learn about the many ways you can get involved. And sign their mailing list to find out about future events!

PS: I accidentally won all this pink champagne at the silent auction…I always forget you can actually win those! Oh well, you know I love my champs!

At the end of such a tragic week in our nation, it can be helpful to reflect on some of the positive things that happened this week, even in the midst of the horror that’s rightfully dominating the headlines.

The big news for farm animals this week is that the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled against our opponents, and is allowing our historic farm animal protection measure to proceed to the ballot this November. The pork industry’s leadership isn’t exactly pleased, warning producers that “the tentacles of any HSUS measure will reach you.”

Finally, the ascendance of the farm animal protection movement is well-chronicled in a major new feature on Huffington Post.

Paul Shapiro
Vice President, Farm Animal Protection
The Humane Society of the United States
Follow at twitter.com/pshapiro

P.S. Video of the week: How much this cat and rat can teach us…

Here I am, back on the vegan ad beat! One of my ad pals sent me this new campaign from Daiya and it is p hilar. Nice print ads too!:

The Adweek post about it asks an important question though, “Now what about convincing people who don’t have any problems processing dairy that they should eat the fake stuff instead? A bridge too far?”

But really, more and more perfectly lactose-tolerant people are shying away from dairy I think. For health reasons usually, plus I know like 4 people personally who gave it up because it gave them pimples (cause it’s the devil!). Still though, what do you think? Do we need to show sad cows or gross health facts to get people to switch to non-dairy? Or can a mainstream enjoyable ad do the trick?