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Note from Vegan Outreach

WOW! New Record!

During Fall semester 2007, Adopt a College activists set a new distribution record of 415,622 booklets handed directly to students on 471 campuses across North America -- breaking the previous record by 20%!

As of May 6, 2008, though, these dedicated leafleters have already set a new record, having handed out 433,671 booklets so far this year at 487 schools! 30 volunteer activists in four-figures!

Based on our estimates, efforts of AAC activists to date will spare nearly two million animals from the horrors of factory farms each year.

Overall distribution for 2008 is also well ahead of last year's pace, having already passed three-quarters of a million booklets -- over 6,000 a day! To keep up with demand, Vegan Outreach has spent more on printing and shipping in the past few months than ever before, and more printings are needed very soon.

This has only been possible with your very generous support! Because of your donations, thousands and thousands of people are reached every day with concrete, detailed, illustrated information documenting the animals' plight and the compassionate alternative.

We will continue to do our very best to make your contributions go as far as possible for the animals. Thanks so much!

Product of the Week

Lynn Chorn, one of Vegan Outreach's very first members, has created a new, ultra-premium vegan hand and body lotion. Four years in the making, Malcolm's Miracle works great and lasts a long time!

Send your nominees for Product of the Week to product (at) veganoutreach (dot) org; previous products can be found here.

Notes from All Over

Pew Commission Condemns Factory Farming

The prestigious Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, just concluded its 2.5-year study of American animal agriculture with unanimous findings from its 15 members. The Commission was chaired by former Kansas governor John Carlin and included, among others, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, and former Dean of the Univ. of Tennessee's College of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Michael Blackwell.

The panel concluded that factory farms pose unacceptable risks to public health, the environment, and animal welfare. It also issued a series of recommendations, including a phase-out of battery cages, gestation crates, veal crates, foie gras, and tail-docking of dairy cows, along with inclusion of poultry under the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.

Right: a crippled chicken being raised for meat; below, how hens spend their lives. Photos by COK.

The Washington Post published a great story on page A2 entitled, "Report Targets Cost of Factory Farming." USA Today’s story begins, "The way America produces meat, milk and eggs is unsustainable, creates significant risks to public health from antibiotic resistance and disease, damages the environment and unnecessarily harms animals, a report released Tuesday says." The Wall Street Journal’s coverage focuses both on the problems caused by factory farming, and the Commission’s conclusion that the "agriculture industry is exerting ‘significant influence’ on academic research." The Des Moines Register’s piece highlights the fact that the Commission is accusing "some livestock interests of trying to disrupt a wide-ranging study of the industry by threatening to yank financing for scientists and universities."

It is almost as if the industry doesn't want people to know the truth!

Egg-Free Pledge

Have you given up meat, but still haven't quit eggs? Know someone who needs to take that step? Compassion Over Killing, who runs the informative EggIndustry.com website, invites you to take the 30-Day Egg-Free Pledge!

Notes from Our Members

Two classmates have made changes in their diets and in their hearts because of VO pamphlets I gave them. One has cut all meat out of her diet. Another interviewed me for a research paper concerning farm animal treatment, and has decided to go vegan! She expressed an interest in leafleting in the future, too.
-Kristl Commander, 5/1/08

At the University of New Hampshire, a lot of students remarked how sad the booklet was, and I saw a fair amount of students intently reading them. One guy walked past me and sincerely said, "That booklet really opened my eyes."
     At the Berklee School of Music, three different people came back to me wanting more information because they were trying to go veg/vegan/trying to get others to go veg/vegan. I chatted with all of them about the other brochures and they were really happy to get them. I exchanged emails with another who may join me for summer leafleting.
-Brian Grupe, 5/2/08

Above, Molly Schulman leafleting at CUNY Baruch, photo by Jenna Calabrese; below, Aashish Bhimani leaflets at George Mason U, photo by Jon Camp.

Leafleting with Nina [Gucciardo] at Lansing Community College was a good experience, as most students took a booklet, and many people stopped to talk to us. When I went to offer one student a leaflet, she said she already got one earlier, and was never eating meat again.
-Krista Rodgers, 5/1/08

At Montclair State University, I head some really positive comments, including: "I got one of these last fall when you guys were here and it made me go vegetarian!" "I really like this brochure -- it's so well put together. I got one last year and I based my entire persuasive speech project on it!"
-Eileen Botti, 5/1/08

I had a lot of great conversations at the University of Colorado, Boulder today. One guy said he knows it's time to go veg, and that his writing professor is a vegan and introduced the class to animal issues via various reading and writing assignments. Another came back asking for more Even If flyers to use in the music class he's been teaching since 1968 at the University. I asked him how he would incorporate the subject matter into his music class. He said, "This is important information that people need to be made aware of." A woman also came back asked for extra Even If flyers to distribute in her next class.
     My favorite exchange of the day was with a person who, earlier in the year, was very upset that I was leafleting "for veganism." He said I was taking the wrong approach, the world is not going to go vegan, and on. I'm not sure what opened his eyes, but today he thanked me for my good work, said people need to read the Vegan Outreach literature, etc. What a change in attitude!
-Barbara Bear, 4/30/08

Annetta Stoker and I just completed a mini tour of 10 colleges through the Dallas region to give the students something to ponder over the summer. A number of students expressed interest and concern, and I know that those whom we overheard represent many dozens more that will make changes. For example, at Texas Woman's University, we ran into another student who was giving a presentation on vegetarian and animal rights issues. A student at Texas Christian University told us that receiving the booklet was a sign, after hearing about vegetarian and factory farm animals several times recently -- now he had concrete information in hand. This shows that we need to reach out to those who don't know about these industries with detailed information.
-Casey Constable, 5/5/08

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Vegan Outreach
P.O. Box 30865
Tucson, AZ 85751-0865

VO is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; all donations are tax-deductible.