SPAR’s circus demonstration was an excellent success with no major problems, mostly because we knew our rights and were peaceful and positive, while making our statement clear to the public. Authorities will not bother you if you don’t break the law, but just in case they want to make a fuss, it’s best to know what you can and cannot do. This mostly becomes an issue when attempting to get footage of the animals who are chained up before shows. One clown (who wasn’t funny anyway) threatened one of our photographers, but we knew he couldn’t catch us wearing those big shoes.
We stayed out of the way of circus patrons and did not yell or chant at them, instead remaining silent and holding our banners and signs high. We were reminded of why we were there when a dog trainer ran up to us and pleaded that “it’s not ALL bad,” saying he tries to set an example so that other trainers will treat their animals better.
The demonstration received coverage from two news stations and three newspapers, and the MSU Board of Trustees definitely took notice. After 15 years of the circus coming to MSU, the trustees and SPAR are working together to form a policy to ban circuses at MSU for good.
Written by Jason Levy, President of Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals at Elgin Community College
On March 20, I organized a Meatout event at Elgin Community College. A couple weeks before the event was to take place, I requested a laptop with a projector, the largest screen they had available, and a table directly in front of the college’s cafeteria. Without any trouble, they let my group, Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have everything that we were asking for. We were able to set up our table right in front of the cafeteria (which is by far the busiest part of the campus), and project “Meet Your Meat” onto a huge screen. Everyone that walked past the cafeteria that day saw what happens to the animals that are used for food, and what was being served in the cafeteria.
We also continued to gain student support for our “KFC-Free Zone” campaign. KFC has refused to adopt the most basic animal welfare standards to protect the 850 million animals that they kill every year from suffering, and recently, KFC has been trying to move onto college campuses around the country. So, while showing our fellow students where their lunch came from, we urged them to sign our petition to ban KFC from campus. This campaign has been extremely successful, largely due to the hundreds of signatures that we have collected. We have only been working on this campaign for a couple weeks, and already, I will be presenting our proposed ban at the next Student Government meeting.
Written by Kyler Hamilton, a student at Hofstra University
Over spring break I joined in alongside my veggie-eating and animal-loving comrades for part of peta2’s collaboration with the Taste of Chaos Tour, an expedition across the nation. Driven by the surfacing issues relevant to the time, peta2’s campaigns are dedicated to one central focus each year. Currently, the target is the inhumane acts being committed in the fur industry.
On Tuesday, I headed up to Portland, Maine from my home in Mass to meet up with the group.Once I arrived I met up with Cody, who gave me a run down of the event, and introduced me to the other peta2 Road Warriors. After chilling for a bit and getting to know everyone, we headed outside to begin petitioning the line that had formed in front of the Civic Center. Not thinking I headed outside in a T-shirt and a button-up. After gathering around a hundred signatures my extremities began to go numb. So, I grabbed my coat and returned to gather more. Most people were more than willing to sign after hearing the horrific details of the fur industry.
Once the doors opened we headed inside and returned to our table. The Taste of Chaos Tour was one of the most exciting places I have tabled thus far. People responded well to the cause and were shocked by the video.It was a long day, but as it came to the end we tallied up the signatures and found we surpassed our goal of 1,000 signatures ending up with over 1,300. My experience as a peta2 Road Warrior has been an awesome one so far, and I am looking forward to spending the rest of my spring break on the road!
Written by Carleen Gigante, a member of the Brock Animal Rights Club (BARC)
On March 20, 2008, Brock Animal Rights Club (BARC) held our 3rd annual Vegan Taco Day. The purpose of this event was to introduce students to cruelty-free food, and rid any stereotypes surrounding vegan food. We also wanted to inform faculty and students about where their meat comes from.
We set up shop in the hallway and assembled a taco production line. Students ordered tacos for only 50 cents each, and BARC members prepared these delicious animal-free tacos. At the end of the taco line, customers were presented with a handful of booklets about factory farming and the meat industry. We also gave information on the benefits of eating a plant-based diet, as well as free stickers. Everyone that came to see us was open-minded, and we were happy to inform them why we were selling these tacos to students.
We sold 150 tacos in an hour and a half… with one left for each person helping out—as a reward! But most of all, it was a reward in itself knowing that BARC was able to inform so many students and opened so many eyes to the cruelty of meat production.
Written by Brooke Kolisar, a student at California State University - Los Angeles
For my TV production class at California State University Los Angeles, I was given an assignment to direct my own Public Service Announcement. After watching footage of helpless animals being strangled, beaten and skinned alive. I knew what subject I wanted to address.
After picking up the required props including a bat, trash and blood (fake of course); I went back to my house to start shooting. I realize I have left out vital forms of torture these animals endure, but I couldn’t bear to ask my actress to re-enact anal electrocution or to chew off her own feet in hopes of escaping death. After all, she wasn’t being paid.
Young and old try to emulate what they see in magazinesand what they see on fashion runways (I have been a culprit too). But there is a cruelty-free way to do itand in my opinion cruelty free is more attractive. The fashion industry is very powerful but so are we. Somebody needs to speak for the voiceless.
Written by Kelly Sloan, President of Students Against Cruelty to Animals at the University of Texas.
Thursday, March 20th, is Great American MeatOut Day, a day devoted to spreading awareness about the effects of meat consumption on animals, humans, and the environment. The University of Texas animal rights group, Student Against Cruelty to Animals, held a rally on campus where we passed out free vegan food while dressed up as zombies to go with their theme of “Only Zombies Eat Flesh”!
Overall we felt the rally was really effective. Many people liked the food and chose to go veg for the rest of the day or try it out for a week. The costumes caught a lot of attention as we called out “Only zombies eat flesh, try vegetarian” and many found it hard to resist our leaflets!
This entry was written by Drew Winter, President of Students Promoting Animal Rights (SPAR) at Michigan State University.
Students Promoting Animal Rights (SPAR), led by PETA’s 2007 Sexiest Vegetarian Boy Next Door, is protesting the Royal Hanneford Circus, scheduled to perform at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center this April 11-13. Royal Hanneford employs Tim Frisco, who was famously caught on tape encouraging his peers to seriously harm elephants in training.
To raise awareness on our campus and in our community, SPAR members obtained over 500 signatures from Lansing residents on Valentine’s Day. We asked people to sign valentines entitled “cruelty is not entertainment,” and presented the total stack at our meeting with Breslin officials. Virtually everyone was enthusiastic to sign, so it was easy to get all the letters signed in six hours with just a couple petitioners at a time walking around campus.
Group members also wrote letters to the student newspaper, and President Drew Winter wrote an opinion column illustrating Royal Hanneford’s violations, why circuses abuse animals, and the Breslin’s lack of action. We have contacted all the local media outlets and will be featured in the Lansing City Pulse next week. Perhaps the most effective outreach tool yet has been our Facebook.com group, which has accrued over 1,100 members at Michigan State! We are also using the networking site to plan a poster-making party and a protest on the day of the circus, so stay tuned!
This year’s ”Vegetarianism is for Lovers” event, sponsored by WARN, was a wonderful success, drawing around 150 people! We had two tables of literature and encouraging each person to take anything they wanted. We baked for over 6 hours to prepare all the food that we served. We baked over 120 cupcakes, 5 cakes, and hundreds of little heart cookies. It was wonderful to see people interested not just in the amazing free vegan food, but in what our club stands for. On her way out, one woman told us that she had just gone vegan!
This Valentine’s Day themed all-vegan event was geared toward educating people about the benefits of going vegetarian or vegan, from saving animals, to their own personal health. We were able to get an amazing room for this day, and decorated the entrance and inside with Valentine attire. We also had free valentine-making at the tables where people sat to eat their vegan goodies.
Valentine’s Day is a day of celebrating love, and what better way to express your love for humans, the environment, yourself, and the animals than going vegan? Everyday allows us as activists to reach out and touch people, and make them aware of the suffering that animals endure. Valentine’s Day provides a special opportunity for us to spice things up with sexy ‘go veg’ ads from Alicia Silverstone, Dita Von Teese, and others. WARN is thankful to everyone who participated in “Vegetarianism is for Lovers”!
Written by Lucas Solowey, President of the Concordia Animal Rights Association at Concordia University
This Valentines Day, students with CARA (Concordia Animal Rights Association) joined forces with peta2 to hand out awesome cruelty-free Valentines Day cards that urged students to “have a heart for animals – buy cruelty-free”. Fellow students helped make cards, give them to awesome guys and gals and even handed some out in front of a company giving out free Colgate toothpaste (tested on animals).
After talking to kick-ass college kids about how much animal testing sucks, and how easy it is to buy cruelty-free, we headed over to the student union to place a special little v-day card in each student organization’s mailbox.
Written by Carleen Gigante of the Brock Animal Rights Clubs at Brock University
Brock Animal Rights Club has been at Brock for 3 years. We decided this year to again have a “Fur Stop” which is basically a check point where students can stop and check to see if their fur trim is real or fake, and learn about the cruelty of the fur industry.
We handed out pamphlets and stickers, including a few “I’m an asshole, I wear fur” stickers. A lot of people disagreed with the wearing of fur, but I was surprised to know how many students did not know or did not stop to think about the cruel process of making fur. We also had a few people who wanted to argue with us about the fur industry—and that’s fine with us! We were able to give them enough information for them to finally see that wearing fur isn’t necessary, especially when there are so many fashion options.
Altogether it was a successful day, and we informed a ton of students. We can’t wait for next year’s!
