Sentient Today

Animals can be our friends, at least until they are raised and killed for food. Then, the meat industry’s gross neglect of animal welfare takes hold. More and more consumers are being misled by "humane" labels on meat products. And now, animal advocates are in the middle of a fight for better labeling.

Read the full report “Labeling Meat Humane Is Not Humane—or Sustainable.”

That’s the spirit! In honor of Giving Tuesday, here are some animal welfare organizations we love. The Good Food Institute, Animal Equality, ProVeg International, Faunalytics, and Compassion in World Farming are all doing truly outstanding work to promote a better love and understand of animals around the world—to name a few. Please consider donating to the cause for a more animal friendly world. Complete list of recommended charities.

Plus, it’s not too late. You can help spread the word about our brand new fellowship for vegan writers. Our expert team will suggest hot topics, edit your op-eds, and submit them to our friends in the media for publication. Get free publicity for your work while saving animals! 🙏🌱
 

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1. 👏 On Friday, the Brussels Parliament recognized animals as sentient beings! Animals will be removed from the category of “property and immobile goods,” as they are neither of those things and will now have their own class in society. [Brussels Times]
2. 🐔 ATTN: This video from Amick Farms, a chicken processing facility on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, is hard to watch. It shows the high-speed slaughter of hundreds of birds a minute. If you’re sensitive to this kind of a material, you might want to look away. But consider that however gruesome, these images are meant to educate everyone on the consequences of animal farming, the ones big meat companies don’t want us to see. [Washington Post]
3. 🔥 Livestock farmers are firing back with ridiculously defensive claims after the EU recommended significant cuts to herd size because of industry’s impact on the climate. This might be hard to believe, but one farmer is quoted saying that livestock animals are only a “small” contributor to climate change and a “major” part of the solution. For the record, one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture. [Farmers Guardian]
4. 🐶 Egypt decided to export 2,400 cats and 1,700 dogs—so animal rights activists started #FightEgyptianCatsandDogsExport. Activists fear the animals could end up in countries where they’re liable to be abused or even consumed, and they’re ready to do something about it. [Egyptian Streets]
5. ✌️ Erick Castro knows how to go vegan on a budget. Check out his guide to the simplest, cheapest plant-based meals all over Brooklyn. [NPR]

Read This Book

Ever felt like you needed to hit the reset button? Sometimes, our bodies just don’t work the way they should. There’s where Kim-Julie Hansen’s new book Vegan Reset: The 28-Day Plan to Kickstart Your Healthy Lifestyle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2018) comes in extra handy.

Step one: Set a realistic goal. This is far and away the book’s most impressive takeaway. As Hansen puts it, you get to decide what you’re ready for. For new vegans, this can be as simple as paying attention to the food you eat (and your body’s response). Four weeks later, you’ll have all these new tools to help you succeed in long-term. And they’re not just recipes.

Part of going vegan is navigating the social situations you’ll inevitably find yourself in--when you might have said yes to meat in the past—as you’re learning what it takes to maintain a vegan lifestyle. Remember, it’s one step at a time. “That’s not so scary,” she writes.

Read the full book review of Vegan Reset.