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: cover inside. 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.”

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: cover inside. Hand deliver it to the shelter and ask that they review it. Let us know their response.