Adopting An Animal Friendly Menu

In the spring of 2002, Animal Place launched Food for Thought: Adopting an Animal-Friendly Menu, a campaign to encourage SPCAs and humane societies to become consistent in their compassion and behavior toward all species. You can view our informative brochure online. Specifically, we are asking animal welfare organizations to adopt a vegetarian or vegan policy for all their events.

In a letter to her peers across the nation, Diane Allevato, executive director of the Marin Humane Society and a partner in the campaign, wrote: “The simple premise of the campaign involves asking ourselves two questions: What animals do we protect? And do we serve those same animals at our events?  “Too often we rescue injured pigs from the roadway or adopt out a classroom chick that became a chicken; then we host our annual gala with breast of chicken on the menu or kick-off our ‘dog walks’ with a pancake breakfast featuring sausage links.”

The Marin Humane Society has not served meat at its events for more than a decade. As Allevato explains, “We rescue them. We care for them. We adopt them. At our events, we should not have them on the menu.”

 We thank the following shelter directors for signing onto our Advisory Committee: Ken White, Peninsula Humane Society, CA; Ed Sayres, the American SPCA Christie Smith, Potter League Humane Society, RI; Bert Troughton, NH; Sharon Harmon, Oregon Humane Society, OR; Penny Cistaro, Whatcom Humane Society, WA; Steve Natato, Champaign County Humane Society, IL; Victoria Wellens, Wisconsin Humane Society, WI; Sally Fekety, MI.

What you can do:

•Contact your local SPCA or humane society and ask them if they have a vegetarian policy. If they do, please let us know.

•If they don’t have a policy, contact us for a shelter information packet. Hand deliver it to the shelter and ask that they review it. Let us know their response.