This week the Western Animal Rights Network is holding a turkey-less Thanksgiving meal to give turkeys a reason to be thankful.

The Western Animal Rights Network is an Associated Students (AS) club devoted to educating the Western community about animal right issues, said Western graduate Rebecca McDow, who is a long-standing member of the Animal Rights network.

The club has been around for 11 years and is known for two big events: Vegan Fest, which is held in the spring and the turkey-less Thanksgiving.

“This is going to be our 10th Thanksgiving event,” McDow said. “It gives students an opportunity to have a pressure-free, meatless Thanksgiving, which I think is important because this holiday is a real cultural staple and the turkey is a huge part of it.”  

A main goal of the club and its events is to encourage people to help animals by adopting a vegan diet, purchasing cruelty free cosmetics and adopting animals as opposed to buying a pet, Western senior Shawn Herbold said.

More than 300 million turkeys are killed throughout the course of a year and 45 million of those are for Thanksgiving alone, Herbold said. The turkeys are kept in cages, and de-beaked and de-clawed to keep them from clawing each other, she said. The turkeys are also pumped with drugs, and their bones often break under their own frames because they are forced to grow so quickly, she said.

McDow said she started out following a vegetarian diet and then changed to a vegan diet after figuring out the differences between the two.

A vegetarian is an individual who doesn’t consume any meat products, and a vegan is an individual who doesn’t consume any animal products. The main difference is a vegan wouldn’t eat dairy or eggs because those also come from animals who suffer from farm cruelty, she said.

“This is more of a vegan event because veganism goes beyond vegetarianism, because the meat-industry isn’t the only one that abuses animals,” Herbold said. “I always want people to walk away from this dinner with a better understanding of how they can help animals through changes in their diet.”

The Thanksgiving dinner is a simple event where people come to eat and hang out, McDow said. There is literature on animal cruelty available as well as a slideshow of past events and information.

“It’s all positive images—no gruesome photos or anything,” McDow said. “It’s more informational because it brings up the environmental rights and health issues regarding veganism as well as the obvious animal cruelty issues.”

There will be an all-vegan spread including Tofurkey, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy and vegan pumpkin pies, Herbold said.

Western senior Kayci Robbins said her interest in veganism grew once she came to Western. Robbins said Western has a large group of people who feel strongly about animal cruelty, so it wasn’t hard to find learn how to change her diet.

“I don’t know much about the club, but I really like that it exists,” Robbins said. “Coming from someone who didn’t know how to go about doing things, it’s nice to know that information is being put out there. There are so many angles to this issue that it can be overwhelming.”

Western alumni Jake Moretto said he attended the turkey-less Thanksgiving both his freshman and sophomore years. He doesn't follow a vegan or vegetarian diet but his girlfriend does. Moretto said his eyes were opened a lot to animal cruelty he didn’t realize existed.

“I’ll admit I like to eat meat,” Moretto said. “But I actually like a lot of vegan food too, so I would go to the [turkey-less Thanksgiving] with my girlfriend. She liked going because you can sit with people who follow the same diet and have the same beliefs. Going to the dinners made me wish I had the gusto to completely give up meat and poultry.”

This year the dinner is being held on Nov. 20 from 6-8 p.m. in Viking Union room 565 and costs $2.

“I really want the club to get more educational events out there,” Herbold said. Herbold said in the mean time anyone who wishes to learn more about veganism and animal cruelty should visit the Web site www.goveg.com .

Share this article:
                                   

Comments (1)

Only registered users can post comments.
Please login or register.