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Animal News You Can Use: Happy Prop 2 Year!

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Well, it’s 2015 and that means California’s Prop 2, among the most important advancements for animals in the US ever, is now in effect!

The New York Times ran a must-read column, “Hens, Unbound,” yesterday commemorating the monumental achievement, and NPR did a nice round-up yesterday on the law taking effect too. The LA Times ran a strong A1 story about Prop 2’s implementation. Of course, some egg producers are complaining about it, and the San Jose Mercury News editorial board had a strong message for them this week: “stop squawking.”

More news to celebrate: Outdoor Magazine (about a million readers) proclaimed that the future of meat is plant-based. Even White Castle just added veggie burgers to its offerings.

Happy new year!

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

P.S. Video of the week: Why is this raccoon celebrating? Because animal advocates are extraordinary and are moving the ball down the field!

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Tomorrow is the LAST DAY for the Vaute pop-up shop! Exclusives on Vaute coats, plus chocolates, shoes and more!

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So, if you’ve been out of the loop, Vaute had to close down their Williamsburg storefront basically overnight! I know, sad and cray. But! They’ve opened a special vegan holiday market of sorts in SOHO and tonight and tomorrow are the very last days it will be open!

Not only are there special deals on awesome and limited edition Vaute gear, Lagusta’s Luscious is there with vegan chocolates, Bhava with vegan shoes, and Fanciful Fox with vegan and adorable soaps!

The shop is at 311 w Broadway. Open from 12-8. Tomorrow is the very last day! Go go go!

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Vegan gift guide: 9 great presents for your favorite non-vegans!

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imageVestiges kitchen towels, see #3!

I do these every year I think, a list of vegan presents for non-vegans, I’m just a little late this year. But still, I hope this list gives you some ideas and I’ve included a few very last minute gifts.

Basically though I make this list every year because it can be hard to shop for omnis. I like to find things that are vegan—of course—but I’m not buying my mom a “Meat is Murder” tshirt, you know what I’m saying? I still want it to be about her, I just want the gift to also align with my values. So! Shall we? SPOILER: we shall!

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1. For the locavore/foodie/lazy

Here’s a last-minute gift idea! A gift card to Goodeggs.com! This site is my new favorite thing. You order online a few days in advance and they bring locally-made goods to your home. They have LOTS of great vegan options and I can confirm the company is very nice. And half the places they source from are the same people I see at the farmers market if I manage to make it out of my house on Sunday! I don’t usually recommend gift cards but this one is actually nice and fun because you are telling your pal about a service maybe they didn’t know about and they get to pick out whatever they want. So it’s nice for foodie types. 

Unfortunately, this is only available in the Bay Area, LA, Brooklyn, and New Orleans. But there might be something similar in your area so ask our friend Google. 

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2. For the fashionable and chilly

I found this pretty cotton scarf at AbesMarket.com. It’s fair trade, eco-friendly and totes adorbs. I would get this for my mom, because she’s always cold. Why is she ALWAYS cold? We may never know. 

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3. For the faraway friend:

Also pictured at the top of the post, these cute Americana kitchen towels from Vestiges come in state and select city themes. Send your hometown pals a reminder of where they came from! Vestiges sent me a few and there was quite a fight over the New England one in my office. Those New Englanders have some serious hometown pride! The kitchen towel series is a collaborative effort with students at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, with a mission “to work with external clients to train and expand each student’s skill set so they are able to enter the job market with real-world project and client experiences.”

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4. For the curious and crafty

Another last-minute yet thoughtful gift, you could give your pal a gift card to CourseHorse.com so they can take a class of their choosing! I recently took a Japanese marbling class and everyone has been asking me how I even found out about it—why, on Course Horse! They have a gagillion classes listed and you can search by interests like art, cooking, and all kinds of stuff. So again, this is a gift card but it’s thoughtful because you are turning your pal on to a service they might not know about and may like to use forever and ever. Plus they get to take a free class in whatever they want! So fun!

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5. For the childrens

Like I say every year, kids are nerds. They love books! Here is a super cute series called Mimi and Maty. Mimi and her 3-legged dog Maty are on a mission to save animals in need. You can find the books at Powell’s.

I feel like empathy for animals is a great gift to share with kids because they are kind of already prone to that, no? So fostering that natural inclination is a great way to path the road for future animal advocates—and maybe even vegans! Plus, kids are book-loving nerds. image

6. For your bearded friends

I heart these moisturizing “beard and body bricks” from Brave Gentleman: “It softens coarse beards, mustaches and skin with organic coconut oil, fair wage and clay-filtered Moroccan argan oil and vitamin E.” Lovely!

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7. For face-shavers

Jack Black makes this nice cruelty-free shave kit that would make a great present. This runs on the higher end of gift giving but just a nice vegan shave brush is a good present too. Shave brushes really make all the difference because they exfoliate while you brush on the shave soap. 

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8. For the cat-lover/and or cat

Etsy has a lot of great kitty toys and I just love these cute catnip gnomes from MisoHandmade. And bonus points: “Each comes packaged in an Earth First EcoBag a compostable plant fiber cellophane sleeve so that the catnip will stay super fresh.” Yay!

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9. For the whole gang

If you need to buy something small for a lot of people, Hurraw! lip balms are perfect! I wrote about these before because I loved them, but it wasn’t just me. I swear I STILL have (non-vegan) people telling me how much they love the Hurraw lip balm I gave them. 

Ok pals that is my list this year! Go forth and conquer the holidays!

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Hi my friends! Time to look inside last month’s Vegan Cuts…

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Hi my friends! Time to look inside last month’s Vegan Cuts Beauty Box!

So my fave thing this month is the tinted lip and cheek balm from Mullein & Sparrow. It’s not super colorful, more just like gives you a dewy thing going on. I’m into it! There was also a nice thick black “eyeshadow crayon” by The All Natural Face. My deskmate tried it out and used it like a liner. Her comments were that she liked the way it went on, you can smudge it nicely. But it did transfer to the top of her lid during the night. But my sis says if that’s an issue, you can dab a little black eyeshadow on top of the liner line and it’ll set it. My sis is so smart. About makeup and nothing else. 

Also included was a moisture stick thing from Demes, soap from Shorganics, a skin serum from La Mav, a shampoo from Evolvh, and a surprise soap from Lush

I got this for free but if you want to try it, the box subscription is $19.95 a month, shipping included (for US addresses. International is more).