"Nathan" and "Runkle" - a sheep and goat seized in a cruelty case here in Philadelphia - were rescued by the Humane League a few days ago and brought out to our great friend Dr. Rob Teti of Chenoa Manor animal sanctuary in Avondale, PA (near West Chester). Here these animals will be free to run the fields and enjoy life with other rescued sheep, goats, and lots of other farmed animals. (See their picture at the end of the post, pre-rescue).
Last week The Humane League also presented our humane education program to ten different classes at a South Philadelphia grade school over the course of two days as part of their "Kindness to Animals" week. The students learned about the cruelties inflicted on pigs, cows and chickens on factory farms, and did an art project that helped them put themselves in the shoes of those animals.
As is always the case, the reaction of the students to hearing about how animals are actually treated on farms was one of anger and a sense of injustice. Today is the celebration of the birth of Martin Luther King, an icon today but a man who was reviled by many in his era who were threatened by the idea that a difference in skin tone or ethnic background does make a person any better than or worse than another person. (He was even declared by the deputy director of the FBI as "the most dangerous threat to national security" at that time). King's descendants, including his widow Coretta Scott King and son Dexter, have in recent years both advocated for veganism/vegetarianism as an important step towards creating a just and equitable world for all who dwell in it. We can only hope that with the continued work and advocacy of every single one of us, 45 years from now the idea of animal rights will be looked upon with a similar acceptance to what is now granted to the idea of civil rights.
If we are to reach such a future in 45 years, or even 100 years, we all have to keep active and keep educating and creating social change on animal protection issues.
On that note, our veg outreach programs have started up again in 2009, with 2,700 veg starter kits distributed in our veg newsstand boxes since January 1. Our veg leafleting is off to a slow start as we've focused on some institutional matters like end of year finances, redesigning our website, and hiring our first employee - and as we try to wait out this bitter cold and wait for colleges to be back in session - but we'll have a packed schedule of college and concert leafleting all spring. We're also in the process of tripling our online veg outreach programs (done via MySpace) and - well, there's a lot more to come, but we'll save that for later!
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