Many vegans are afraid to speak up. They worry that doing so will threaten the friendship. But if you keep it civil and focus on the animal cruelty then the discussion doesn’t have to put friendships in jeopardy. Remember that all relationships involve some conflict. The problem isn’t the disagreement. The problem is the resolution. If there isn’t any resolution (where both parties feel respected and heard; where apologies are given and accepted; where there’s mutual agreement to move forward rather than linger in past hurt) that’s where the problems lie. But if you converse with respect and care, you won’t jeopardize the friendship. If you just make sure to try to understand their perspective then these conversations will be more productive. To do that, ask questions and try to remember how you thought before you went vegan.

Another technique for creating positive change in others is to acknowledge that any reduction in animal product consumption is a win for animals, the planet, and human health. Of course we want people to go all the way and go vegan. But we shouldn’t let our long-term goals cloud our interpretation of short-term successes. Many people are more receptive to learning about animal cruelty and adopting vegan eating if they don’t feel like it has to be “all or nothing.”

Lastly, choose your battles. You may not want to take every single opportunity to advocate for farmed animals. So sometimes you may want to limit the discussions to a one-on-one basis rather than with a group of nonvegans; this way the playing field is more even and you can have more of an impact. Or you may want to have the discussions in private email rather than publically on Facebook. Sometimes you’ll want to just sit back and let others do all the talking so you can better understand their perspectives and so they feel respected. Moreover, you don’t want to interfere with any actual progress they’re making on behalf of companion animal cruelty. You do want to support them in that!

Now, with the above said, here are some ideas for how to respond. When a nonvegan makes a commitment to help end cruelty to companion animals, you can take that opportunity to say…

• “Aww that makes me so sick when people are cruel to animals. Did you know that the same kind of suffering happens everyday on factory farms?” Then you can show them the short film, Farm to Fridge and ask them what they think.
• “Bravo to you for standing up for companion animals! Now are you ready to take the next step and stand up for farmed animals too?” You can follow up by asking them to boycott factory farmed meat or go vegetarian a few days a week. Give them a goal that feels realistic to them. Don’t ask them to change everything all at once if that’s going to feel too overwhelming to them. Instead, give them a target within their reach.
• “All kinds of animal cruelty are wrong. I’m really glad that we have some laws that protect pets. Did you know that farmed animals like pigs and chickens don’t have any significant legal protections?” You can follow up by offering information about how to join an organization like MFA, HSUS, or ALDF so they can participate in legal campaigns to increase protections for all animals.
• “It’s our moral obligation to prevent needless animal cruelty. That’s why I support what you’re doing to raise awareness about animal cruelty. That’s also why I’m vegan.” Here you can offer a veg starter guide or offer to loan them a vegan cookbook. This would be a good place to tell your story about how you made your transition to veg*nism.

Got other ideas for good responses? Feel free to share them in the comments below!

Following graphic undercover footage obtained by MFA – showing workers throwing, kicking, dragging, and beating turkeys, as well as birds suffering from bloody open wounds and infections – the Hoke County Sheriff’s Department raided a Butterball factory farm facility in Shannon, North Carolina, early Thursday morning.

The undercover footage recorded at Butterballreveals:

• Workers violently kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or into transport trucks in full view of company management;
• Employees bashing in the heads of live birds with metal bars, leaving many to slowly suffer and die from their injuries;
• Turkeys covered in flies, living in their own waste, unable to access food or water and suffering from severe feather loss and necrotic (dead) muscles and skin;
• Birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, rotting eyes, and broken bones; and
• Severely injured turkeys, unable to stand up or walk, left to die without any veterinary care, because treating sick or injured birds was too costly and time consuming, as the farm manager explained to MFA’s investigator.

After viewing the undercover video,veterinarian Dr. Debra Teachout said, “A culture of blatant and severe animalmistreatment has been allowed to flourish unchecked [at Butterball], and for that reason, this facility should be shut down immediately.”

As this investigation illustrates, the lives of turkeys in Butterball’s factory farms are brutal and filled with fear, violence and prolonged suffering. While wild turkeys are sleek, agile and able to fly, Butterball’s turkeys have been selectively bred to grow so large, so quickly, that many of them suffer from painful bone defects, hip joint lesions, crippling foot and leg deformities,and fatal heart attacks. Due to the company’s lack of meaningful animal welfare policies, training or procedures, Butterball subjects countless turkeys to immeasurable cruelty and neglect each year.

“Butterball is guilty of extreme animal abuse and should be held criminally accountable,” said MFA’s Executive Director Nathan Runkle. “Before ending up in restaurants and grocery stores, our investigation shows turkeys killed for Butterball are routinely crowded intofilthy warehouses, neglected to die from festering, bloody wounds, and thrown, kicked, and beaten by factory farm workers.”

To view the undercover video and see what you can do about it, visit ButterballAbuse.com.

2011 saw major changes for all kinds of animals.

Take a look below…

Humane Society of the United States:

Mercy For Animals:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals:

And for my own small organization, Vegas Veg, here’s what we did in 2011:
1. Helped bring compassionate billboards back to Las Vegas.
2. Raised over $400 for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake with a vegan bake sale.
3. Raised another $400 for Mercy For Animals by celebrating World Vegan Day at a local vegan restaurant.
4. Handed out over 12,258 educational leaflets from Vegan Outreach.
5. Sent out dozens of free vegan kits through the mail to anyone who requested one.
6. Held regular social events to build the veg community in the Vegas valley.
And much much more…

Just imagine what vegans will do in 2012!

One Vegas billboard features a sweet droppy-eared puppy and a bright-eyed perky piglet. The billboard asks, “Why love one but eat the other?” In another billboard, an adorable kitten and a chick are shown with the same question, “Why love one but eat the other?” The billboards also include Mercy For Animals’ vegetarian website, chooseveg.com and the Vegas Veg* website, vegasveg.com.

In March and April of 2010, nine billboards were located throughout the Las Vegas Valley and were viewed over 10 million times! Then in February 2011 the billboards made a reappearance for one month. And now, for a third time, these billboards are up across the Vegas Valley for four weeks.

The billboards will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people daily. Viewers are encouraged to eat less meat, go vegetarian, or go vegan. The billboards are a peaceful and effective method of saving animals’ lives, slowing climate change, and improving human health.

The billboards were not only less expensive the third time around but they were also more eco-friendly. That’s because there was no need to print out the billboards. That’s right, the original billboards from 2010 were kept in storage and were ready for re-use twice in 2011.

Let’s hope they’re still in good condition for use in 2012!

The video is online at http://www.mcdonaldscruelty.com/

The hidden-camera footage was taken at Sparboe Egg Farm facilities in Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado.

In the video you’ll see:

• “Hens crammed into filthy wire cages with less space for each bird than a standard-sized sheet of paper to live her entire miserable life, unable to fully stretch her wings or engage in most other natural behaviors
• Workers burning off the beaks of young chicks without any painkillers and callously throwing them into cages, some missing the cage doors and hitting the floor
• Rotted hens, decomposed beyond recognition as birds, left in cages with hens still laying eggs for human consumption
• A worker tormenting a bird by swinging her around in the air while her legs were caught in a grabbing device – violence described as ‘torture’ by another worker
• Chicks trapped and mangled in cage wire – others suffering from open wounds and torn beaks
• Live chicks thrown into plastic bags to be suffocated”

Most rational people would agree that farmed animals should be given the freedom to walk, stretch their limbs, turn around and engage in natural behaviors… at the very least. Yet, this egg supplier deprives hens of even these most basic freedoms by using barren battery cages.

These types of battery cages are so cruel that the entire European Union and the states of California and Michigan have banned their use. Not only are these battery cages cruel, battery cages also increase the health risks of eggs to consumers. Additionally, leading food retailers, such as Whole Foods, Hellmann’s, and Wolfgang Puck, and hundreds of colleges and universities refuse to use or sell eggs from hens subjected to the inherent abuses of battery cages.

Sadly, not a single federal law currently provides any protection to birds from birth to death - at the hatchery, on the factory farm, or during slaughter. Moreover, there exist a large number of legal exemptions for farmed animals which allow for abuses to run rampant without prosecution.

You hold enormous power in preventing animal abuse by adopting a compassionate vegan diet. Please choose vegan options today!

If you’re in the Vegas Valley this weekend, please join us for a day of fun, live entertainment, and delicious healthy food! You will be able to sample fabulous vegan food, enjoy great live entertainment, and meet health-conscious local vendors outside in the temporary festival marketplace. Make new friends and discover new options for a healthy body, mind, and spirit!

Pura Vida is located at 1236 Western Ave, Las Vegas, Nevada. Admission is free and all ages are welcome. Dogs are allowed in the outdoor areas. A scrumptious 3-course lunch menu is available for only $15. The group that funded the Vegas billboards, Vegas Veg, will have an information table with plenty of information about going vegan, including recipes. I hope to see you there!

For anyone unable to make it to Vegas this weekend, be sure to take a look at the Vegas Vegan Eating Guide for your next visit to Sin City. The restaurant list is available online here: http://www.vegasveg.com/food.html

Kim Sheridan of HealthForce Nutritionals:

• Eighty percent of books that people buy do not get read. Film, however, gets watched.

There are three broad steps to making a film:

1. Pre-production:

- determine what to produce

- create the script (consider using Keltex.com software if writing it yourself)

2. Production:

- footage! Produce it yourself or obtain from others. Use any kind of camera, even the small point-and-shoot kind.

- music: produce it yourself or find royalty-free stock music. Garage band on the Mac is a good program for producing it yourself.

- still photos: stock photos or use images from animal organizations that permit this use (most do).

3. Post-production:

- editing: can use small programs like imovie.

It isn’t necessary to have expensive equipment or salaried workers. You can do it yourself.

Airing the film:

• Youtube of course
• Public access channels
• Film festivals – check withoutabox.com
• Contests

Confidence is important. Meet deadlines for submission.

The Message: follow your heart and your film will be better for it.

Nathan Runkle of Mercy for Animals

Shannon Keith of Uncaged Films

Films get through to people.

Animal Entertainment Terrorism Act -

Sometimes the illegal approach works.

Generally, about film:

• Script – useful to have one, including for a documentary.
• Distribution of film: festivals
• use of public relations team really valuable
• Use good equipment

Nathan Runkle of Mercy for Animals

Been involved in all kinds of films.

Video is powerful.

Lights, camera, action:

• Use top equipment from the start. You never know when your film may be picked up and the base footage should be of good quality.
• Lighting kits are available and are especially useful. Without one you may have nothing but useless footage.
• Camera: get a decent one and learn how to use it. Need to be able to work in all kinds of lighting and sound situations.
• 10-second rule: film at least ten seconds of everything you film.
• Music: try royaltyfreemusic.com

Making a viral video:

Don’t try for a feature-length film.

Success on facebook or youtube:

Try for

• funny
• amazing
• helpful

evoke emotions, keep short – of the top ten videos on youtube none are over five minutes, most are between two and five minutes.

Make it easy to share – include a facebook share link.

Give the story to the Associated Press when appropriate.

Described MFA’s Farm to Fridge cross-country tour and the new pay-per-view technique.

Runkle had some general recommendations for what our printed message says, and specific recommendations on appearance, layout, working with printers.

Content:

Images: A study showed that people respond best to photographs of canine-type animals.

Don’t condemn the audience. People don’t respond well to accusations and guilt-trips.

Different audiences require different words, colors, layouts. For example, a message will look different if directed to a teen audience as opposed to an elderly one.

Appearance:

Fonts: Choose fonts carefully. Different fonts convey different moods. Too many fonts clutter a page and confuse the reader.

Color:

Similarly, colors convey mood as well as character. MFA’s logo, for example, is blue and grey, conveying a sense of trust, stability, and honesty. You’ll notice that many banks choose blue for their main logo color.

You can find many sites that explain what colors symbolize. Some examples: here, here, and here.

Photos:

Use high-quality photographs. You don’t have to pay a photographer in most caes because many suitable images are available at low- or no cost. For example, MFA has a Flickr account with photos anyone can use.  Vegan Outreach also allows use of its images. Additionally there are stock photos at several sites:

gettyimages.com

istockphoto.com

dreamstime.com

Royalty-free photos can be used for free but they are available to anyone. You many find the images you choose on many sites. If you want exclusive images you will need to pay for that restriction.

Design:

You don’t have to do this all yourself. You can outsource parts or all of your printed work.

A good source for logo work is xerocity.com. Many designers compete for your business so you can see multiple concepts before you spend a dime. A similar option is 99designs.com.

Printers:

If you want a vegan printer contact robert@veganprinter.com for suggestions. Or go to indieprint.com.

Inexpensive online printers abound. Try jakprint.com, psprint.com, printplace.com, for example. The downside of these economical printers is that the color is not always correct.

A good source for getting multiple quotes is printlocal.com.

Distribution of printed literature:

Literature can be distributed in many ways: newsstands (you can get these boxes from Peta), festivals, libraries, and leafleting, for example.

Evaluating effectiveness:

Use simple surveys to determine how well your printed materials are working. MFA, for example, sends out a survey a certain number of days after sending out requested literature, asking if the recipient made any changes as a result of reading the piece.

Other:

Business cards are a must.

You might want to publish a newsletter or magazine.

You can save money by printing pieces jointly, paying part of the cost of a large order that is designed by a major animal organization. The additional cost would pay for having your contact information printed on the material as well. Many organizations are open to joint printing.
—
Our notes from the 2011 AR conference will be all at http://www.vegansoapbox.com/topics/ar2011/. Notes from 2009′s conference are at http://www.vegansoapbox.com/topics/ar-2009/.

Mimicking the style of the milk industry campaign, the anti-milk ad features an angry woman holding blood- splattered milk cartons, exclaiming, “PMS? No, I’m livid with the milk industry for abusing and killing cows. Most Cows in Dairy Production Are Painfully Mutilated, Intensively Confined, and Mercilessly Killed” and directing consumers to MilkIsCruel.com.  

The full-page ad is set to run in an upcoming issue of Ms. Magazine, the popular feminist journal that helped lead the charge to retire the misleading and offensive dairy industry ads.  

Cows produce milk for the same reason humans do, to nourish their young. In the dairy industry, cows are forcibly impregnated in what the industry refers to as a “rape rack” and then kept in a constant cycle of pregnancy and lactation. So that all of their milk can be sold for profit, baby calves are ripped from their mothers’ sides when they are only a few days old. “Surplus” calves, including almost all of the males, are shipped to slaughter or sold for veal production. Calves raised for veal are usually fed an artificial, iron-deficient milk replacement formula designed to induce borderline anemia and pale-colored flesh. Many calves are also chained by the necks in narrow wooden crates, unable to turn around or lie down comfortably for the duration of their short, miserable lives.  

The constant cycle of pregnancy, birth and often artificially elevated milk production takes a huge toll on the cows’ bodies and most are considered  “spent” at six years of age, when they are shipped to slaughter for low-grade hamburger meat. Cows would normally live 20-25 years. Worn out by the cruelties endured in milk production, many cows, called “downers,” are too sick or injured to walk to the kill floor. Workers often use forklifts and chains to push or drag these helpless animals to their deaths, tearing ligaments and breaking bones along the way.  

“The extreme violence and abuse cows and calves face at the hands of the milk industry is truly unconscionable. Conscientious consumers can get more than enough calcium and other nutrients from healthy, vegetarian foods without all of the saturated fat, animal cruelty and dishonest marketing from the dairy industry.”  

~ Mercy For Animals’ Executive Director Nathan Runkle

For more information, visit www.MilkIsCruel.com.

MFA explains:

Upon reviewing the undercover footage, world-renowned animal behaviorist Dr. Jonathan Balcombe denounced the facility, stating that “this video depicts scenes of unbearable suffering and inexcusable neglect. … This farm should be closed down at once.”

Share the information by going here http://www.mercyforanimals.org/pigabuse/ and choosing “share on facebook.”

Just as how Smokey the Bear reminds us that “Only you can prevent forest fires” MFA reminds consumers that they can “prevent needless suffering of farmed animals by adopting a healthy and humane vegan diet.” Learn more about transitioning to a plant-based diet at http://chooseveg.com/