Birthday for Me, Gifts for the Animals

by Stephanie Ernst · 2008-10-15 07:36:00 UTC
Topics:

The Oprah post is still coming (this following post was mostly finished pre-Oprah). In the meantime, check out the Animal Person response. Mary Martin and I had some of the same issues with the program.

But let's move away from Oprah for a moment:

Today is my birthday. Although some of you reading this know me personally, most of you don't, so you're probably not too inclined to get me a birthday gift. And truth be told, I'm not big on being given birthday gifts either. I don't mind, however, using my birthday for the greater good, so I'm going to ask for gifts anyway—for my nonhuman animal friends. Here's my birthday list. I'm asking each of you to cross off as many of the items as you can.

1. Make at least one of your meals today a vegan meal—no flesh, no dairy, no eggs, no byproducts (check ingredient lists!). Find recipe suggestions here: VegCooking, ChooseVeg.com, FatFree Vegan.

2. Watch at least two of the vegan videos on the 10 Recommended Videos list.

3. Order or download a free vegetarian starter kit from one (or more, if you're looking for variety) of the many organizations that offer them: Compassion Over Killing starter guide (download or order); Mercy for Animals/IDA/FARM starter guide (download or order); Vegan Outreach Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating (download or order). For more, see the list at the Boston Vegetarian Society's Web site.

4. Donate to a nonprofit working for the animals, whether financially or with your time or services.

5. Go to your local bookstore or an online store and purchase one of the books from the 10 Recommended Readings list, and read the online readings from the list today.

6. Talk or write, today, to at least one person who is important to you about what you know or are learning here and elsewhere about animal issues. Forward to them the posts and videos you find powerful.

7. Download or order a cruelty-free guide to help make sure your purchases today and every day do not fund animal suffering: Caring Consumer guide, American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) guide (pocket-sized!).

8. Try a food or meal—a vegan food or meal—you've never tried before.

9. Visit Happy Cow to check out what restaurants and stores in your area (or in the areas to which you're traveling) are vegan or offer vegan options.

10. Purchase or build a birdfeeder and place it outside to help out our feathered friends.

11. If you haven't already, check out the informative background posts in the About section of this blog, including the Top 10 Ways to Make a Difference for Animals.

12. Visit HumaneMyth.org and educate yourself on the realities of all animal agriculture, with information and stories from the people who would know best—former farmers themselves. Check out Humane Facts as well.

---
Vegan birthday cake photo courtesy of QuintanaRoo at Flickr.

 

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Prop 2 and Pacelle on Oprah: A Reaction Preview
NEXT STORY:
Super Bowl Countdown: 5 Actions in 5 Days to Protest Skechers' Dog Racing Ad

COMMENTS (9)

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.