Opinion

The China Study (TC Campbell), The World Peace Diet - Will Tuttle,  Joan Dunayer -Animal Equality,   Joan Dunayer - Why We love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows,  Melanie Joy -Prisoned Chickens,  Karen Davis - The Extended Circle,  Jon Dynne-Tyson (ed.) Out of the Jungle,  Jay Dinshah - Animal rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress,  Henry  -Compassion, the Ultimate Ethic,  Victoria Moran - The Sexual Politics of Meat, (and also)  Living Among Meat Eaters, Carol Adams - On Their Own Terms,  Lee Hall - Comfortably Unaware,  Richard Oppenlander- Diet for a New America, John Robbins - Radical Vegetarianism, Mark Matthew Braunstein - Plant Peace Daily: Everyday Outreach for People Who Care,  Rae Sikora and JC Corcoran - Animal Factories,  Jim Mason/ Peter Singer - The Dreaded Comparison:  Human and Animal Slavery,  Marjorie Spiegal - Animal Rights and Human Obligations,  Tom Regan/ Peter Singer - The Souls of Animals, Gary Kowalski - Being Vegan: Living With Conscience, Conviction, and Compassion,  Joanne Stepaniak - Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth From the cattle rancher Who Won't Eat Meat,  Howard Lyman - Pleasurable Kingdom, Jonathan Balcombe - Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals, In the Absence of the Sacred-  Jerry Mander, Vegan Freak- Bob and JennaTorres, Ruby Roth-  Vegan is Love,  Sue Coe - Empty Cages, Tom Regan Man Kind?, Cleveland Amory (And when you're done with all these, relax to Finnegan's Wake !- James Joyce)!   

Going to slaughter: Should animals hope to meet Temple Grand The lives of factory farmed animals cannot be made humane Published on February 6, 2010 by Marc Bekoff, Ph.D. in Animal Emotions

Temple Grandin has become a media star because of the work she does that supposedly makes the lives of slaughterhouse animals better. Meat eaters and the slaughterhouses that pay her and those that don't claim she does make the life of a terrified animal better and that it is okay to eat them because they have better lives. Of course "better" doesn't mean even a marginally "good" life. Grandin and others also claim that because or her autism she has better connections with animals because she has a better understanding of them, but this has been called into question by solid scientific research. But let's put this topic aside because one could easily argue that if Grandin does indeed have a better idea of what animals are thinking and feeling she couldn't possibly allow them to be sent to their reprehensible death to become an unnecessary meal.

How I Became An Activist
  In 2002 I was looking for something Diana -- my girlfriend -- and I could do together.  We often laughed at how we had nothing in common but our love for animals, so I decided we should attend one of the monthly meetings of a Columbus activist group called POET (Protect Our Earth's Treasures).     At the meeting, we met the POET activists, a bunch of serious underdogs fighting to help the animals in Ohio State's research labs.  I was deeply impressed by their passion and dedication, and became involved with the Cats-On-Meth project.   Cats-On-Meth was a $1.68M project that involved infecting healthy cats with Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), then injecting them with "binge" doses of methamphetamine.  The FIV was intended as a substitute for AIDS; the cats represented AIDS patients who used meth.  The researchers put the cats through performance tests (one was making them walk a plank that became progressively narrower) as their conditions deteriorated.  They were given spinal taps, up to three per day, all administered at the base of the skull.  At the end of two years, the cats were euthanized and their brains dissected.  Though the stated purpose changed several times during the course of the project, initially it was to provide a model for an AIDS patient who used methamphetamine.   I am a person who tries to keep an open mind.  The ostensible purpose of animal research is the advancement of science, with the sacrifice of animals for a greater good that might relieve suffering and save lives.  I did not want to be unfair in my actions regarding animal research.  But this Cats-On-Meth stuff sounded fundamentally flawed.  Something needed to be done about it.   Later I was disabused of any notions that I might be unfair in my actions against animal research.  I attended numerous animal researcher meetings, both as an invited guest and undercover, and found the main concern of the researchers there to be money.  Their attitudes towards animals ranged from indifferent to callous.  In one meeting during a slide show, when a slide of a massive dead animal on an examination table for a necropsy was shown, everybody laughed!  There was no sympathy, no empathy.  I learned that even in cases of "valid" research, the animals were in desperate need of help to avoid suffering.  My conscience was now clear.   With Diana's help, I began campaigning against Cats-On-Meth.  I wrote flyers and passed them out on campus and on the street.  I wrote letters-to-the-editor to various papers.  I started a one-man protest, three days a week, at the clinic where the lead researcher worked.  And I attended all of the numerous POET protests against Cats-On-Meth.   Diana had stopped attending POET meetings because the cruelties we discussed were too upsetting for her.  But I did get her to attend our biggest protest, at Ohio Stadium, when 10,000 people showed up to pay $25 to be allowed inside to look at the stadium's renovations. ( ! )  (These fans were hard-core.)   At one point Diana and another lady were holding a big sheet with "Stop Killing Cats!" written on it, when a bunch of drunks across the street started razzing us.   "Kill the cats!" they chanted, and then started laughing.   Diana raised her fist and yelled, "Come over here and say that!"   No, no, no, I thought, and I went over and told Diana to calm down.  We protestors weren't looking for a fistfight.  Fortunately, the drunken students fell silent and confused, not knowing how to respond to a belligerent gray-haired lady.  I didn't take my hot-headed darlin' to any protests after that.   But a fight did nearly occur during the two years I picketed the OSU vet clinic.  One day the lead researcher approached the entrance while I was explaining my protest to an interested party.   "Lies, all lies," he yelled at us.  I'm afraid I suddenly lost my temper and yelled back, "You're a murderer!"  None of this was very constructive.   Not long after that, a fit-looking young veterinarian with an Australian accent came out and challenged my then 57-year-old self with withering accusations and violation of my space.  Having given me a good talking-to, right in the face, he retreated back to his work place.   It was all very disturbing to me, and I mulled over how to deal with a repeat performance.  Sure enough, a month later here comes Crocodile Dundee again, bent on giving me what-for.   I stepped back and said, "Stay right there!  If you advance on me again, I'll consider it an assault!"  He stopped, and to my surprise, simply turned and left.  I never encountered him again.   Eventually the lead researcher quit and the project was suspended.  We thought we had achieved victory, and even TIME magazine ran a story on the suspension entitled "A win for the kitties."   We should have known better.  The folks at Ohio State weren't taking all of this very well.  An internal memo surfaced that stated "We can't let the animal rights protestors win on this issue."  The brutal research resumed six months later.   We carried on.  I distributed thousands of flyers, and sometimes showed up at venues where the university president was speaking.  I was escorted out by security from a Marriott hotel ballroom, and given the bum's rush from the Arena Grand theatre in Columbus.  On another occasion I was ejected from a cat show.  (What a bunch of hypocrites.)   Eventually, NIH funding for the project dried up, and it died a quiet death, like the cats, after seven years.   But I was hooked.  Working for the animals had become my calling.  Actually, I had experience in this area before, staging what was probably the first animal rights protest at Ohio University in 1964.  Some friends and I had a sign (I forget what it said) and flyers with a picture of a sad research monkey on it.  It was our first time at this, but we did OK, and Joe Ezsterhas, now the famous Hollywood screenwriter, did a story on us for the Ohio University Post.  Joe wore a Princeton haircut then, and I heard him refer to some demonstrating hippies once as "the great unwashed."  He mocked us, too, writing "The monkeys of the world can rest easy tonight.  Lee Williams is on the job."   My passion for this work lay dormant for 38 years, but in 2002 it was revived.  I have met great friends, and great people who have come to speak to our group.  There is a price to pay for choosing this avocation:  compassion fatigue.  There is also an initial depression.  For me, I experienced serious depression for about two weeks after exposure to the realities of this work.  Then I came out of it.  My heart hadn't hardened, but my mind had, in a way. It had adjusted, putting heartbreaking images in a compartment, to be visited only when necessary.   Some people depict us animal rights people as sissies, but just the opposite is true.  We look at the unspeakable, because somebody has to.  Someone has to deal with these atrocities, and be unflinching.  The kids who make the undercover videos for Mercy For Animals (mercyforanimals.org) are the most courageous people I know.  Its young founder, Nathan Runkle, was a member of POET.   So that's my story.  I've engaged in many other actions for the animals in the past decade, some mundane, some risky and exciting, all involving being assertive to help the animals.  I am a naturally reticent person; this work has helped, at this late hour, to round out my personality.  It is the most important and meaningful thing I have ever done.   We activists are always welcoming of new people entering the fold.  It is frustrating but rewarding work.  If it has meaning for you, please, test the waters.  Attend demonstrations.  Get to know the people.  Find out how you can serve.   Help the animals. 

Activists often feel powerless to stop hunting in their neighborhoods. But Northeast Ohioans are seeing victories in places like Broadview Heights and North Royalton, where, respectively, bow hunting ordinances have been repealed and prevented. Community leaders are catching on to the word we’ve been spreading: all lethal methods paradoxically ensure stable populations; they don’t reduce numbers.

This revised post was published in its original form in June of 2011.

In an eye-opening new research paper called The Conceptual Separation of Food and Animals in Childhood, University of Bristol researchers Kate Stewart and Matthew Cole explore how we, as a society, teach our children a separate morality for food animals that intercepts a child’s natural tendency to protect and empathize with all animals. As the paper points out, when we explain to children for the first time where meat comes from, their first reaction is often revulsion. Parents confront this moral quandary by explaining to children why farm animals have a different role in our lives than other animals.

In the last 439 million years, there have been 5 great extinctions that wiped out between 50 and 95 percent of the species then living, events so devastating that the earth took millions of years each time to repopulate and rediversify. And right now, we are living through the 6th such event. It's projected that by the end of the century, half of the millions of species of plants and animals that now populate our planet will be gone--forever. Half!

The Flaming Ice Cube Compassionate Cafe

The Flaming Ice Cube located in the heart of downtown is practically my second home. Cleveland’s one and only all vegan café offers an incredibly delicious variety of vegan cuisine including creative salads, sandwiches, wraps, pizzas, pastas, smoothies, and their specialty burgers recently voted one of the best veggie burgers in the country.

Happy, happy Mother's Day to all of you mamas (whether to kids or kittens) for you enduring love, which reproduces the day, every day, for those who depend on you.

Now, I know…flowers are dandy, but you’d prefer a revolution. I’m with you. In that spirit, here are some radical thoughts...

A mother cow carries her baby for 285 days—that's even longer than the long human gestation period of 260 days. On Sunday, when we celebrate the mother archetype—the nurturer, the maker, the mender, the powerful and loving source of life—let's hold a thought for the 9+ million dairy cows in the U.S., whose sole existence—creation, birth, and death—is premeditated for the purpose of extracting fluid from their postpartum bodies.

Imagine the life force it takes for a cow to produce an 80-pound baby in nearly the same amount of time it takes us to produce a 7.5-pound child. Imagine being repeatedly impregnated for the entirety of your adolescent and adult life; consider the chemical load that makes you produce twice the amount of milk a cow did 40 years ago. Your babies disappear, your milk is extracted by man or machine and then, whether you've lived on a grassy field or in a dark shed, you’ll be slaughtered once you're spent.

These mothers endure an existence not unlike the one from which Ohio kidnap victims Amanda Berry, Gina De Jesus, and Michelle Knight just escaped.

Chains, ropes, life indoors, deprivation, isolation, rape, multiple pregnancies, fear, and beatdowns—as the facts emerge on the news, the nauseating descriptions are familiar—in a different context, they are the reasons we're vegan.

If you’ve not yet gone vegan, Mother’s Day 2014 might be a great one-year anniversary to celebrate the day you did.

Take a deep breath! Forgive yourself any regrets and focus on the present and future. Mamas, have a dinner prepared by someone else. See the mess in your house as a happy sign that your loved ones are alive and within reach. Celebrate that your passion and love raises each new generation to do better than the last.

Now please take action and share. Copy and paste any of the following to Twitter (or @ That's Why We Don't Eat Animals on FB):

#MothersDay: Thinking of 9 million US cows whose sole existence is premeditated 2 extract fluid frm their postpartum bodies. Via @ruby_roth

A mama cow carries her baby for 285 days—longer than the long human gestation period of 260 days! #GoVegan #MothersDay via @ruby_roth

If you’ve not yet given up dairy, #MothersDay 2014 might b a great 1 yr anniversary to celebrate the day you did. #GoVegan via @ruby_roth

Chain rope life indoors deprivation isolation rape multple pregnancies beatdowns: kidnap victims or the burger you just ate? via@ruby_roth

Love and protection to you and all mamas everywhere,

A vegan or vegetarian food plan can sometimes be difficult in a restaurant situation. Factor in being a recreational or professional athlete who watches carbs, fats, and counts protein. Menus can feel limiting and disappointing. Sometimes your selections can be confined to the a la carte section. Even if the restaurant of choice is not offering you an easy experience with their menu, you can still create a wonderful meal and remain true to your health and vibrant convictions. 

Every Friday, my daughter’s school principal sends a message to the parents underscoring something that happened that week, as well as announcements and reminders for the days and weeks ahead.  This week’s communication had a very important message: 

“Testing week can be grueling and for some students very stressful.  Please support your child by ensuring that he or she is well rested and eats a healthy breakfast.” 

Before the close of the message, she reminds us: “Please make sure your child eats a healthy breakfast at home or have him or her arrive prior to 8:30am to eat breakfast at school.”   And then finally, an e-mail from my daughter’s teacher reminding us that test week is approaching so please make sure your child eats breakfast and brings a healthy snack to eat between test sessions.  

We all know how important it is for our kids to eat breakfast — but did you know that it can literally change their lives?   A pro-bono study was conducted for Share Our Strength by Deloitte, a consulting firm in Washington, DC and their findings included that kids who eat school breakfast score an average of 17.5% higher on math tests and are 20% more likely to graduate high school. 

May I let you in on a secret?

Actually, it’s a not a secret. You already know it, somewhere, innately, though most people have forgotten it.

You have an incredible power to change the world.

Many books have been written about the physics or spirituality behind this statement. An industry of self-help motivators has sprung up, reminding you of this fact.

Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation: An Introduction to the Book that Made Animal Ethics Important. Part I

The animal liberation movement has come a long way since the publication of Peter Singer’s thoughts (in Animal Liberation – AL) on the moral conduct (or lack thereof) of humans towards nonhuman animals. The importance of Singer’s influence on animal ethics is irrefutable, as animal rights theorist Tom Regan appropriately remarked in his 2001 work, Defending Animal Rights, “philosophers have written more about animal rights in the past twenty years than their predecessors wrote in the previous two thousand”. This lack of academic and journalistic coverage of the issue is the primary reason Singer wrote the book. As he stated in a 2005 contribution to the New York Review of Books entitled Animal Liberation at 30 (he had corresponded with the Review in the early 1970s):

While reporting on the seamy underside of The Kentucky Derby, the Healthy and Humane Observer would be remiss if we did not comment on a very relevant and current issue that is making headlines in New York city. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/nyregion/animal-rights-becomes-surprise-topic-in-new-york-mayoral-race.html  For the first time, animal rights are being factored into political campaigns and debates. This is not as a minor issue, but a major topic for candidates such as Bill Thompson, Bill de Blasio, John Liu, Sal Albanese and John Catsimatidis.  On May 6th, citizens will have an opportunity to ask these candidates their stand on banning horse drawn carriage rides in New York city.

How I Became An Activist
  In 2002 I was looking for something Diana -- my girlfriend -- and I could do together.  We often laughed at how we had nothing in common but our love for animals, so I decided we should attend one of the monthly meetings of a Columbus activist group called POET (Protect Our Earth's Treasures).     At the meeting, we met the POET activists, a bunch of serious underdogs fighting to help the animals in Ohio State's research labs.

I recently spoke with a man who was born in India to devout Hindu parents.  Despite their fervent belief that animals have souls and should not be eaten they felt that it was necessary for his personal beliefs to be shaped by his own conclusions.  So, when he was old enough to make that decison, his father took him to a slaughter house where he witnessed a baby goat being killed in front of the mother.  He said the mother cried like a human and that is what made him choose to be a vegetarian.

The Kentucky Derby, considered the most prestigious horse race in the world, was run on Saturday, May 4th. The race is one and quarter miles long, lasts approximately two minutes, and takes place at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Kentucky Derby attendance ranks first in North America, usually surpassing all other stakes races including the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup. It’s also one of the most highly watched sporting events on television: people tune in from all over the world to watch the beauty and splendor of thoroughbred horses.

But behind all of the pageantry and tradition lies a deep, dark secret the public is not privy to. That secret is the intense cruelty and abuse that horses are subjected to because they are regarded as little more than income-generating property.

Words are powerful things.  They can sting and stick with us for years after they were uttered. Frequently, they linger with us far longer than the person who spoke them even remembers saying them.  Words are so important that the Bible gives them an ultimate role.

When we think of Greek yogurt, we generally don’t think about environmental devastation. However, according to a recent report  in ModernFarmer.com, that’s about to change.  Confirming the inherent waste involved in the conversion of animal parts and secretions into animal products, analysts have revealed that it takes three or four ounces of milk to make an ounce of Greek yogurt. The rest of the milk gets converted into acidic whey. This product is so toxic that it’s classified as an industrial waste.

 A large crowd filled the Capitol Theater on Sunday, April 28th for a screening of River Fire Film's "Guilty 'Til Proven Innocent".  The film deals with the controversial topic of breed specific legislation - focusing on specific dog ownership cases, a dog warden whose tactics the filmmakers find questionable at best, city officials, animal advocates, and the city of Lakewood which has outlawed the ownership of Pit Bulls.

“Red Rover, Red Rover, let pet overpopulation be over.” If solving the unwanted pet problem were only as easy as chanting a nursery rhyme. Sadly, millions of unwanted companions are killed in our shelters every year. Many factors lead to animals ending up in county shelters - unwanted litters, inability to afford care, lack of education on the owner’s part in how to deal with behavior issues, & the list goes on.  It is a huge problem which requires a community partnership in working together to address all the issues.

You are looking for a vegan/vegetarian breakfast that gives you a ramp of energy and fuels the start of your day? I have a perfect choice for you and before you grimace in dimensional horror, let me be the first to tell you that you will enjoy it. Oatmeal! Yes, that dreaded, boring word. Fear not, because oatmeal has a clean, great taste and it is your friend in every aspect of your health and wellness.

I was raised on a small farm in Montana in the 1940s, during World War ll. We were poor but I had no understanding of what that meant. We had enough to eat and a large loving family, so the world looked great to me.

Living on a farm I was surrounded by many animals. My dog was always at my side, and I'm sure he spoke our language. The cows and horses all had names, and each one was a special critter.

Birds raised for meat may be sold as “free-range” if they have government certified access to the outdoors. The door may be open for only five minutes and the farm still qualifies as “free-range.” Apart from the “open door,” no other criteria such as environmental quality, number of birds, or space per bird, are included in the term “free-range.” A government official said: “Places I’ve visited may have just a gravel yard with no alfalfa or other vegetation.”

 While visiting a busy garden center today, I almost walked right past this goat who was watching me and everyone else intently. His eyes pleaded with us for attention, but no one even knew he was there. He watched in silence and with little movement. Maybe people just thought he was a life-like garden statue. At first I was delighted to discover him there. As I approached him, though, I sensed a very lonely perhaps neglected animal, in a small lot attached to a dilapidated old house and no one in sight.

There have been several recent articles reporting that:
1). the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as vegan has recently increased to well above its historic level;
2). Americans on average have an increasingly favorable impression of vegans.
 
Factors including wider public awareness of the barbarity of animal agriculture, as well as health and environmental concerns-- along with the variety of vegan foods and menu choices now available-- are creating a tipping point for veganism.  Vegans are poised to become a very significant proportion of the American population in a few short years. Obviously, from the perspective of animals this is very good news.

Are you feeling sluggish and run down? Endlessly tired? Do you come home from work and plop in the chair and decide you are too tired to do anything else other than reach for the remote? You are not alone. The majority of people out there feel the same way and I have one sentence of advice for you before it's too late - "Get up and MOVE!"

As I prepared for an interview today, I couldn’t help but think about one question the journalist asked me in advance of the interview. After talking to people that I referred her to, she asked if there were people who I knew that were not supportive of my views or those of Free from Harm, animal rights or veganism. Apparently others she works with thought this was important for a balanced article.

And I had to think about that for a moment. Of course there are people online that I debate and discuss these issues with that have a lot of differing viewpoints. But who do I know who is openly-critical of examining animal exploitation, violence and the need for animal rights? I was drawing a blank.

In Part I of my discussion on Peter Singer’s publication Animal Liberation (AL), I reported on the immense influence Singer’s work has had on the field of animal ethics, advocacy, and on the overall political and social framework of our time. Here I will discuss the elements of AL that led to its success, namely, the ethical arguments Singer formulates to show that the use of nonhuman animals by humans is morally unjustifiable. 

There are some things you just shouldn’t live without – a comfy pair of jeans, a stellar book collection, and a consistent supply of vitamin B12. Ok, so perhaps your idea of “must haves” is a bit different, but do not dare disregard the importance of vitamin B12. All vegans should include a reliable source of this nutrient in their diet. Reliable sources include fortified foods like non-dairy beverages, cereals, meat analogs and nutritional yeast, as well as a supplement. If you are not including any of these sources in your diet, you run the risk of developing a deficiency, which can cause anemia, elevated risk for heart disease, and potentially irreversible neurological damage. A deficiency may go unnoticed as symptoms can take years to develop, which is why it is crucial to have a regular intake of the nutrient. It should be noted that Vitamin B12 deficiency is far from a “vegan only” issue, as it affects many adults as they age due to decreased absorption ability, which is why it is advocated all people over the age of 50 years old supplement with this nutrient.

It has been two months since I was bound with chains, dragged across jagged rocks in the freezing rain, shorn of my mid-back-length hair, and branded with a cattle iron heated to over 500°F. I am now bald, scarred and permanently marked.

But I’m alive. Others are not so lucky.

At the Plant Perfection Foods kitchen we prepare whole food,
vegan frozen meals. We then deliver those meals to your home
or restaurant. We make comfort foods - soups, stews, and
curry dishes which are carefully seasoned to be delicious and
good for you.

HOW TO HELP STOP ANIMAL CRUELTY AND SUFFERING Introduction

If you feel helpless about not being able to help stop animal cruelty and suffering, do not despair! You can help in numerous ways that you have probably never realised. Further down this page, you will see many different ways to help.

Are you stressed for time each and every week? Maybe even on a daily basis? This pressure can have a severe effect on your health and how you eat. It’s important to plan ahead to keep an optimal level of healthy eats at your fingertips. Every fitness person or athlete will tell you of the importance of structuring your weekly food plan and planning ahead for convenience. It will not take as much time as you might think and the relief of reaching in the fridge for your lunch and getting out the door will be one less thing to think about!

In the face of a 2014 election challenge, Ohio’s popular U.S. Senator Rob Portman made efforts to solidify support from Republicans in the Midwest by addressing what he called a "glaring gap" in Republican policy: nutrition.

Even those who acknowledge that our treatment of animals is indeed a great evil may feel that it is, like the other evils in our world, simply a product of human limitations, such as ignorance, pride, selfishness, fear, and so forth.

According to this view, the horror we inflict on animals is a problem, but not a fundamental cause of our problems—and, because it’s a problem for animals, who are less important than us humans, it’s a lesser problem.

Looking from a variety of perspectives at our animal-based meals, we discover that eating animals has consequences far beyond what we would at first suspect. Like a little boy caught tormenting frogs, our culture mumbles, “It’s no big deal,” and looks away.

The energy drink. That perfectly sized, cold can in the grocery store that refreshingly holds the key to starting your engine. You want it, correct? It will give you "energy" and bring you alertness and help you to not fall asleep at your desk or on the job. Well, sure, it could lend an assist in that.  Most people are searching for "energy" and will take it in any form that is presented to them. Energy drinks are quite a creation. They are kind of a "fun time" in a can. They can taste great and they can give a lift to your mood. The caffiene simply kicks in and does the trick.

              Can An Ethical Person Have a Chicken or a Turkey for Dinner?

I did not grow up around chickens and turkeys. I didn’t get to know these birds until later in life. My first encounter with a turkey took place at a sanctuary in Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s where I worked one summer as a volunteer. Right around that time, my husband and I rented a place in Maryland where it turned out our landlady kept a flock of about a hundred white chickens who disappeared after seven weeks – all but one.

Roasted Tomatoes with Angel Hair Pasta

Four friends representing a local group with the somewhat tongue-in-cheek name “The Road Trip Vegan Posse” organized the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale for the Akron area and raised over $1,100 for Lasa Sanctuary (Jefferson, Ohio). The grand total was more than triple the previous year!