Notes
from Vegan Outreach
Activists Beat the Cold!
Despite cold temperatures, Adopt-a-College
activists handed out 21,782 booklets
last week, with the current total
over 40,000 for the semester --
well ahead of last year's pace!
 One
Last Request for Housing
Thanks so much to everyone who
has offered to house VO leafleters
throughout this Spring semester.
We now need to find housing for
just a few more regions.
Victor Tsou (here leafleting
at Tufts; photo by Jenna Calabrese)
needs housing in or near Auburn,
Mobile, Montgomery, and Troy, AL;
Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Little
Rock, AR; Manhattan, KS; Lafayette,
LA; Hattiesburg, Starkville, University,
MS; and Memphis, TN.
Jodi Chemes and Dean Stanford need
housing in or near Tallahassee and
Jacksonsville, FL as well as Valdosta,
GA
If you would be willing to house
any of these courteous, dedicated
activists, please email tour(at)veganoutreach(dot)org.
Thank you!
The Arc Makes a Visible Turn
 Grassroots,
person-to-person educational efforts
to expose the realities of factory
farming strikes many people as too
slow. Unseen people going vegetarian
across the country don't provide
a viscerally-satisfying victory.
But occasionally, we are given
a glimpse of the future, where we
can actually see the arc of history
bend toward justice. This happened
last week, when Smithfield Foods,
the largest supplier of pork in
the U.S., announced that it will
phase out gestation crates (WSJ;
MSNBC).
Of course, having one supplier
gradually reduce the suffering of
some animals is not the ultimate
goal. We are working for the day
when people eat vegetarian meats
rather than animal flesh. Nevertheless,
Smithfiled's decision -- reached
not because of any specific activist
campaign or legislative pressure
-- is profound because of the future
it reveals.
 Although
Smithfield says they will take 10
years to accomplish this (and longer
for their contractors), this is
much faster than it would take via
state-by-state ballot initiatives
(not to mention the expense and
efforts required for each ballot
initiative). Even more importantly,
the nation's largest pork producer
has now said that gestation crates
are neither necessary, nor desirable,
undercutting any arguments against
future and further bans.
As pointed out in the Economist's
1995 cover story "Also
a Part of Creation," once
you admit that animals' interests
matter, there is no firm stopping
point on the 'slippery' slope: "Unless
you are willing to make an arbitrary
distinction between one level of
cruelty and another, you soon arrive
at the conclusion that humans have
no business harming animals except
on the most urgent necessity."
Thus, vegetarianism is, ultimately,
the only firm, logical conclusion.
While creating many new vegetarians,
our efforts to distribute thousands
of booklets every day to new individuals
are also helping to create a backlash
against factory farming. Modern
animal agriculture cannot stand
the light of exposure. It is both
encouraging and inevitable
that, as we reveal the realities
of factory farms to the public,
our ultimate goal of total abolition
will be preceded by the incremental
abolition of worst abuses.
Last week, we saw the latest visible
step to a compassionate society.
Every day, we are taking the next
steps.
Pig photos by Farm Sanctuary;
Ellen Green leafleting by Matt Ball.
VO Joins Friendster and VegSpace
In addition to the MySpace
page, Jenna Calabrese has put together
Vegan Outreach Friendster
and VegSpace
pages.
Product of the Week
Marty Foster: My favorite soap
is Kirk's Original Coco Castile.
It's cheaper than most vegan soaps
(about $1 for a 4 oz. bar) and is
available at many grocery stores
(for a list, check out kirksnatural.com).
It lathers really well in hard water,
lasts a long time and has no discernable
fragrance. This product carries
the leaping bunny symbol, which
confirms no animal testing.
Send your nominees for Product
of the Week to product
(at) veganoutreach (dot) org;
previous products can be found here.
Feedback from Our
Members
I passed
out 450 booklets at
two alternative country shows. I
really enjoyed it, and got a good
response from many people. It's
such a satisfying feeling, handing
out this information. And I love
it when people tell me they're already
vegan or vegetarian.
-Loren Hart, Raleigh,
NC, 1/28/07
Thursday
at the University of Georgia
was one of my favorite days of outreach
ever. Two people from my talk there
the night before joined Wendy Moore
and me to leaflet. We all came across
many vegetarians and vegans. One
man came up to Wendy to say how
moved he was by the booklet and
how he really wanted to help out.
He might get involved with the local
group, Speak Out For Species. And
yet another man came up to tell
me that he was a devout Christian
and deeply moved by the booklet.
He said that he thought receiving
this booklet was an act from God.
A young woman came up from the UGA
TV station and arranged to interview
me. She came back a bit later, videotaped
me leafleting for about 15 minutes,
and then interviewed me.
I
received more "thank you for
being here" comments than perhaps
any other leafleting session. I
could honestly go on for a while
with such stories. I was absolutely
dumbfounded by all this.
From
a numbers perspective, this was
the best week of college outreach
I've ever taken part in. In 5 days,
a net 8,081 EI booklets
were handed out by us. Eric Griffith
and Wendy were absolutely instrumental
in the success of this week as they
both took off plenty of time from
work to leaflet for the animals,
and this was in addition to their
housing me for 10 nights. They're
great friends to VO and the animals
and I'm extremely grateful for all
they do!
-Jon Camp, 1/26/07
I love
your organization
and am constantly inspired by your
humble, compassionate, and most
of all reasonable approach to saving
animals from their terrible fate.
-DW, Atlanta, GA, 1/24/07
On my
tour last week, I
leafleted at four colleges and handed
out 5,100 booklets, starting out
with 35 hours without sleep, but
it was well worth it! Kudos to VO's
financial supporters, since I could
not afford the booklets for this
trip! I'm taking a couple more days
off for next week to leaflet prior
to Valentine's Day.
-Casey Constable, 1/26/07
I just
visited your website
for the first time, and was honestly
expecting a hysterical, "flatten
the tires of every cattle truck
you see" sort of approach.
I was very pleasantly surprised
to find an inclusive, responsible
dialog about how best to live in
a way that represents an individual's
own moral and ethical beliefs.
MT, 1/23/07
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Vegan Outreach
P.O. Box 38492
Pittsburgh, PA 15238
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