An open letter to the BC-SPCA
| Posted in Go Vegan | Posted on 07-10-2009
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My name is Sarah Kramer and I am the author of the internationally best-selling vegan cookbook How It All Vegan. I am also a volunteer at BC-SCPA Victoria branch.
I have been a volunteer and member of the Community Council for the last year and have been dazzled by the hard work the Victoria Branch Manager, Penny Stone, her staff and volunteers do on a daily basis. Consider me impressed. In fact I was so impressed that I encouraged the fans of my books to donate to my Paws For A Cause fund-raising page and together we raised over $1000 for the shelter.
I am writing you today because while the work the SPCA does to save animals is commendable, I have become extremely disturbed by the food you serve at your fund-raising events.
I believe serving vegan food at all SPCA events is paramount. I mean … you are the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and animal products are anything but cruelty-free. More importantly, by serving meat/dairy/fish you are sending a conflicting message to the public that one animal deserves protection while another one doesn’t.
I understand that not all your staff, volunteers or contributors are vegan. Being vegan is a personal choice and is a decision to be made between you, yourself, and the dead animal staring back at you on the plate, but I do think that as an organization whose sole purpose is to prevent cruelty to animals that the BC-SPCA should not add to that cruelty by serving animal products at its functions.
I am also fully aware that you sustain your organization by depending on donations from individuals and companies. I also understand that it would be difficult to say no to (for example) a dairy company who offers you free products with their sizable donation.
But my question to you is: Would you also take a donation from someone who ran a puppy mill? Because the dairy industry is just like a puppy mill. They are both exploiting animals for profit.
In order for the BC-SPCA to be considered a legitimate and vital part of the animal advocacy community, you MUST draw a line in the sand and not be involved with any companies who exploit animals for profit. This includes the food you serve at your functions.
When I first started volunteering at the SPCA I encouraged the organizers of the Victoria events to take advantage of VEG FUND (vegfund.org) an organization that gives 100% funding for food at any event as long as the food is vegan. I personally got in touch with Veg Fund, and they were very keen to support any fund-raising events the SPCA held.
Today I found out that the Victoria WILD ARC Silent Auction will include dinner. Is the menu animal friendly? No. The menu contains choices from dead cow to dead chicken to dead fish. Do you not see the horrible juxtaposition? Raising $$ to save animals by serving dead animals?
It is possible to make an entire delicious cruelty-free vegan dinner that would satisfy everyone who attended a fund-raising dinner. In fact I will volunteer my consulting time and will donate recipes from my cookbooks for all future events as long as the events are entirely 100% vegan.
Your own mission statement is to protect domestic, farm and wild animals in British Columbia. Freedom from pain and distress. So why are you serving beef at a fundraiser? What is the difference between the cow or the chicken served at these events and the owl or the puppy that you’re trying to save? There is no difference.
I am writing you today to encourage your organization to step up to the plate (pun intended) and to no longer serve meat/dairy or any other animal products at any of your future BC-SPCA events.
If you do not change your policies regarding serving animal products at your events I will immediately step down from the CC and no longer volunteer at your shelter. I will also encourage my fans and other like-minded people to put their time, energy, and $$ into other animal advocacy organizations.
I believe in the BC-SPCA and the work that it does, but I will no longer stand by and watch animals being exploited and eaten in the name of saving animals.
Thank you for your time.
I look forward to hearing back.
xoxo
SARAH KRAMER
I’m right behind you Sarah!
WELL SAID, SARAH!!!! I hope you get a good response from the SPCA, keep us posted :)
[...] For more information, go to Sarah’s blog. [...]
Yay for you, Sarah!! Here in Auckland the same debate is starting to occur at the SPCA, who serve animals… but also serve animals. the recent Companion Animal Council conference held here had Marc Bekoff as keynote speaker and he apparently told attendees twice that the best thing they could do to help animals was to stop eating them and their products. It’s gotta happen! Love, Alice
when living in Toronto, I volunteered for the Toronto Wildlife Center. When I moved to Vancouver, I looked at volunteering for their wildlife center. I found them right at the time where they were having a fundraiser. I asked if there were any vegan options. Just a veggie lasagna was her reply. I asked what else was on the menu. After she told me, I replied, “so let me see if I got this straight. You are holding a benefit to SAVE the wildlife but the event is being held at a Fish and Game Club and you are serving a Side of Beef. Do you not see the irony in this? She got upset saying, “well, if we didn’t, no one would come”.
I didnt’ go.
While I agree with almost all that you have said, I think that “forcing” the SPCA not to serve meat may be unreasonable, and is not only counterproductive – it eliminates the very thing that you claim to encourage.
Choice.
It is a bit of hypocrisy in and of itself, to be honest. And if it weren’t for your proclamation of choice, I wouldn’t bother to call you on it :))
I would be in support of two things:
1. The SPCA offering up a meal option that included free range organic meat (presumably raised without cruelty, and we can argue all night about the merit of killing an animal for the sake of eating it, but we won’t ;)
2. Having the SPCA offer up a vegan meal – this would seem to fall in line with your mandate of choice. Providing this choice would allow everyone to do just that, choose.
In nature (apparently a place that we no longer live) we were afforded one choice – eat what you can find or die. Often, and especially in this climate, meat was a necessity and not an option. This climate does not really support the growth of fruits, vegetables, berries and whatnot year round. We also do not hibernate, so the option to not eat does not exist.
While today we may seem to have an abudnace of choice, the choices today are certainly more confusing than they once were.
Factory raised animals are not healthy, and are not a good choice for many reasons, not the least of which are the moral and ethical implications.
Supporting farmers that produce cruelty free, organic raised, and reasonably fed (i.e. grass for cows) makes a lot of sense.
I do not disagree that many people can choose to live without eating meat. That said, it is an unhealthy choice for much of the planet. I say this with the bias of knowledge and research of Dr Weston A Price (I won’t try to do his work justice in this small space, but I am certain that you are familiar with his work).
I know that you have our own ideas, and I do not wish to suggest that either way is right or wrong.
But choice is just that – choice.
We can choose to serve our body and soul as we see fit, and I think that you can be an animal lover and an animal eater at the same time.
Just look to nature… not everyone eats everyone else, there is a pecking order out there, and it does make a lick of sense (to me anyways).
With love and support… I end my rant.
Clinton
This is one of the many reasons why I think you are amazing :)
I don’t think SPCA should only support vegan food. Clinton’s point were very well put. . I think supporting the SPCA and being vegan are completely unrelated.
I am hugely passionate for dogs, cats, rabbits, birds and all domestic animals. I support the spca whole heartedly… but I eat meat. All living animals must be treated humanely whether it be family pet or commercial animals for slaughter. .You can’t force a person to not eat meat. Forbidding the choice at SPCA events isn’t going to stop people from eating meat. Everyone is entitled to their choices.
Great letter Sarah, very intelligent and well thought out. Even volunteering to be part of the solution too, great.
To Clinton, as a vegan, when it comes to harming animals, choice is not something I’m after. I could never just sit back and say ‘yeah it’s fine, harm animals, don’t harm them, it’s your choice, I don’t mind’. If you truly believe something is wrong then I don’t think you could truly support it in any form.
yes! you are awesome sarah. it’s so true. even if nobody is vegan at the SPCA they should not be serving tortured dead animals. it’s so weird how there is such a disconnect between the fuzzy kitties they’re saving and the fuzzy cows they’re eating.
@Michelle: If an animal is a “commercial animal for slaughter”, then it is NOT POSSIBLE to treat it humanely. Treating it humanely would mean not killing it. You are correct that “supporting the SPCA and being vegan are completely unrelated”. That’s why Sarah isn’t saying that anyone in the SPCA should be vegan. She is saying that the SPCA events should not serve food that is the product of animal cruelty. Those are 2 very different statements.
@Clinton: Why are you talking about the health benefits of a non-vegan diet? Sarah didn’t say anything about, “make the meals vegan because meat is unhealthy”. She said, “make the meals vegan because YOUR OWN MISSION STATEMENT includes protecting farm animals”. So by serving meat at events, they are being hypocritical as an organization, which has nothing to do with the veganness or non-veganness of the individuals in the organization. And how does serving vegan food take away people’s choice? Nobody is saying people should go vegan. I think they can stand one cruelty-free meal at an event for preventing cruelty to animals. And what does the past human diet have to do with today? Humans were forced to do lots of things in the past to survive, including killing each other and stealing each other’s resources to survive. Today, we’re fortunate enough not to have to do those things, and we’re also fortunate enough not to have to eat meat to survive, either. We shouldn’t look to the past to define our behaviour today, because in case you haven’t noticed, our past is not largely something we should be proud of.
@Sarah: a very well-written letter, and I hope it gets the point across! I especially appreciated the link to vegfund, which is a great organization. Keep up the good work! P.S. I have some of the peanut butter fudge from LDV chilling in my fridge right now. Thanks for the awesome cookbooks :-)
Well said Sarah!!
And well said Holly!
Excellent letter! Keep up the good work!
@Holly
I mentioned health benefits, because I spent over four years as a vegetarian, and I can safely say that it did not work.
When I did the research, I learned that it really doesn’t work for most people on the planet, save for those that happen to be blessed enough to have been born in a tropical place.
There is a lot of “neglect” in the world, and that is unfortunate. I don’t keep a pet because I don’t feel that I have the time or ability to give a pet the love and attention it might need.
Ditto for children.
The interesting thing is that I see a lot of self proclaimed animal lovers that neglect their animals… but they also neglect their children, and of course, many neglect themselves. It’s a sad state really… and while I certainly don’t condone the behavior of neglecting any living thing, the choice I make is to not neglect, including myself.
While it might make sense for some to live in a state of neglect, I choose not to.
I am completely in support of the SPCA and what they stand for, but choosing to support the SPCA’s efforts should not mean that I need to choose to neglect my own health.
It’s all about choice – that was my point.
you are such a star! i think this is a great letter.
i’ve always been distraught that the SPCAs hypocritically serve dead animals at their fund-raising events. ugh.
i’d also like to point out to clinton that weston price is a quack: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/holisticdent.html
^just one of many ;)
Excellent letter. What about “animal rescue” organizations using dogs in their “Walk for a Cure” (raising funds for the American Cancer Society), for an organization (ACS) known for funding the use of dogs in cruel experiments in research laboratories, supporting the breeding and sale to research labs of “purpose bred for research” dogs who will merely exist in a state of misery, terror and likely elongated painful deaths thanks to these hypocrites who solicit funds from the public for the exploitation and torture of dogs – for the benefit of mankind????? Dogs confined in laboratories aren’t offered the right to “Walk for a Cure” or Bark for a Cure, and all the other names used to continue the use of dogs as research tools. Sad, and unforgivable.
Great letter! I went to an SPCA benefit 15 years ago. They served chickens. I was dumbfounded. I didn’t get it. The SPCA should most definitely have vegan food at their fundraisers. Many people who are members are not vegan might be really happy with a delicious vegan meal. Stranger things have happened!! I think we have to somehow break the imaginary line that separates animals raised for food and domestic animals.
Well put Sarah. Thank you so much for writing this!! Some of the comments on here on infuriating, but it’s great that you are drawing attention to the hypocrisy of the SPCA serving dead animal flesh. Just last week a group in Ottawa held a World Animals Day event. There were blessings for the dogs and cats while dead chickens and cows were being bbq’d. We went out and did some vegan outreach leafletting.
I would expect that if an SPCA served meat at a function, it would have come from somewhere that was SPCA certified? I believe they still have a farm animal welfare program?
@Clinton: Your arguments don’t stand up. Particularly on a vegan board. You talk about choice, but what choice did the animals have? It’s like I had a friend once who said “I ate a free range chicken and I thanked it and hugged it and was grateful to it for giving me its life.” I sort of stood there and said “You mean you TOOK its life, because I’m pretty sure if the animal had a choice between life and a burger, it’d pick the former.”
Not to mention, I know many people who would love to CHOOSE to be vegetarian, but feel they don’t have the choice for that because of family and societal pressure and bogus studies like the one you showed. Try reading “The China Study” which is the most thorough study of health in the modern world. Dr. Campbell came to the conclusion that, yes, the healthiest diet was indeed vegan.
And for an organization that promotes the welfare of animals, it is hypocritical to serve tortured, beaten, and dead animals at functions. It’s like going to abolitionist meeting, but having indentured servants wait on you.
Sarah – wonderful work!
@Clinton – are you suggesting that most humans can’t survive one vegan meal? Because that’s pretty much what it sounds like.
Just because you personally failed at being vegetarian (whatever that even means these days) doesn’t mean you can’t be vegan, nor that others can’t. I’m curious what ‘proof’ you have, because of the small number of people i’ve encountered who have ‘failed’ in this respect admitted they were eating pretty poorly and were just plain lazy about it.
I’ve been vegan for over 19yrs and am a highly competitive athlete. Seems like if you want to use timeline as a basis for your argument, it fails. Most likely, you were doing something wrong.
As for what we ate in the past – what does that matter now? Almost NOTHING else we’re doing today is what we did 10,000 years ago. And why is *diet* the only behavior that is ever rationalized by what we did in the past? I doubt that any other behavior (murder, rape, throwing our own poop, etc..) is ever excused because ‘we did it 10,000yrs ago’ – it’s equally asinine to justify diet that way.
Back to the main topic, if you visit the event page here:
http://bcspcaevents.com/
It states very clearly: “Animalia: A Benefit to End Animal Cruelty”
It’s nothing short of ‘cruel’ to commodify, exploit and murder other sentient beings….and what’s worse – it’s for a TASTE. A particular FLAVOR. There is no nutritional requirement for humans at a BCSPCA event to consume animal flesh or excretions. None.
It makes NO SENSE to harm animals for an event that is supposedly to advocate the protection of animals.
If animal-loving people don’t want to become vegan, and instead stew in their hypocrisy – fine. They can do it on their own dime.
The BCSPCA should be better than the average person, and strive towards an ideal. Theirs is to prevent the cruelty to animals. The only logical choice is to serve meals that are animal-friendly, ergo, vegan meals.
…and my final thought: if you’re complaining that ‘people won’t come because they don’t like the food’ – that’s pitiful. People should be going to the BCSPCA event because they want to support the BCSPCA and its mandate. Not because they want a particular meal. The only reason they’d be upset is because they’re being reminded that they, too, are contributing to animal cruelty in their avoidance of a vegan philosophy. Caring about animals is more than how much $$ you’re willing to spend at an event.
Dave Shishkoff
Canadian Correspondent (Victoria, BC)
Friends of Animals
http://www.FriendsofAnimals.org
Rock on Holly and Dave! I read Clinton’s reply yesterday and had to walk away from the computer to cool down. I don’t think I can reiterate enough how much I agree with what you two and Sarah have stated. And a further update: after discovering Animalia was indeed serving vegetarian and therefore animal products at their BC SPCA fundraiser, I contacted the restaurant Opus directly and explained, pretty much as Sarah did, the hypocrisy of a non vegan meal at an animal cruelty function.
I have just received a ownderful update of their entirely vegan menu for the night. All vegan, all the time at Animalia.
You see, now they’ve gone off their normal mneu and created what looks to be an exceptionally tasty, high end vegan spread. And no one will complain about the food.
Go vegan and nobody gets hurt, right?
Stephanie
Lovely to see such support for this. I agree with all of Sarah’s points.
I also agree with what some others have said – if they served only vegan meals at events, this doesn’t mean that staff/volunteers MUST be vegan, or that the organization even must actively advocate veganism as part of their mission statement. It could be as simple as just not killing some animals in order to raise money for others. Easy as pie.
Why is it that so many meat-eaters are so threatened by having a fundraiser that doesn’t serve meat? I had the same trouble with my wedding dinner, which was vegetarian and almost fully vegan. My mom was horrified – “can’t we even have CHEESE?” And you know what? We had so many compliments on how good our meal was – many of our meat-eating friends and family said it was the best wedding meal they’d ever had.
So, if you can’t NOT have meat at ONE meal, then you’re as addicted as a cigarette smoker. Then it’s no longer about choice and is suddenly about either compulsion or quite simply the need to make your point. And that is sad.
@skimble – although the SPCA does try to have SPCA Certified meat at their events, my understanding is that most of their events are not able to accommodate this. I could be wrong though! Personally I have an issue with serving (and promoting) “ethically” raised meat…
Good on you Sarah! And go Dave and Holly!
I hope you get a reply. I also wrote to RSPCA in Australia recently for a fundraising day they were running which involved cupcakes. Their website, which didn’t offer a vegan cupcake recipe instead offered decoration and topping ideas which included gelatine, dairy, eggs etc, which I found completely hypocritical.
My letter sadly went unanswered which is disgusting considering I donate to a number of charities and I donate to many of RSPCA’s campaigns. It’s enough to make me want to withdraw any funding from their activities – they are simply using ‘cute’ animals to raise money to spend on other types of animal cruelty.
YAY Sarah! What a well-written letter.
I think most non-vegan people have a difficult time viewing farm animals as no different from pets. One you pet, the other you eat! I know I grew up loving my dog AND eating hamburgers, never really seeing the connection.
But once you see it, it’s so obvious.
Hopefully, thanks to you, this organization will now see that perpetuating cruelty to cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and rabbits is no different from supporting cruelty to dogs and cats.
Glad to see this being discussed. We had a similar discussion about the Green Party food policy, along the lines of sustainability.
Pretty much the same result – unpopular minority opinion seen as pressuring the rest although I believe they have served wonderful vegan-only food at a few gatherings to much acclaim.
And it always niggles to hear people quoting Weston-Price. Talk about a history of bias!
There are several doctors today (McDougall, Ornish, Fuhrman, Klaper) healing people from all backgrounds with a vegan diet. Not one of them reports even an exceptional patient who suffers from the lack of animals, much less the sweeping population percentages that objectors seem to fear. And the proof is in the peer-reviewed studies.
@Clinton You’re right. Choice is essential. However I don’t understand how serving a vegan meal at an event that is promoting prevention of cruelty to animals is anti-choice. For starters, menus for charity events are always announced in advance. Therefore if people do not wish to eat a vegan meal at said event, they can CHOOSE not to go. That is choice at its best. You can also spin it the other way, if they serve meat at the function and several of the guests are vegetarian or vegan, are they not allowed the CHOICE of having a meal that doesn’t contain meat? Another double standard.
I don’t understand how you cannot grasp the basic concept of what is being said in Sarah’s letter. She is not asking people to neglect their health (By the way I have been vegan for over 2 years now and am in perfect health, as confirmed by blood tests done only last week) she is asking the management of the SPCA to make an informed decision and stop the double standards that they are promoting at these events.
You make sweeping generalisations in your post which are completely unrelated to the topic and also baseless. You go off on tangents about how you know so many animal lovers who are actually neglecting their animals and about how everybody on the planet cannot survive on a vegan diet unless they live in the tropics (which had me scratching my head a tad). It sounds like perhaps you have some insecurities to work out before you start posting such nonsensical comments on a public forum.
Lifeorce was formed in 1981 as an ecology organization to respect the rights of all life. In 1983 we started Animal Rights Day in Vancouver – the first in the world. At our 1983 symposium we served only vegan meals and the Four Seasons did a great menu.It is truly hypocritical to save some species while eating others.Why is taking other orgs so long to realize this cruelty?
See our web site for campaigns against the dairy industry, factory farming …
http://www.lifeforcefoundation.org
Good for your stance on not serving animals we applaud you sticking up for not killing animals to serve at a saving animal function. Since you know Penny Stone and her so called wonderful hard work, could you please ask her why she killed a sweet, gentle dog called Ricky. The SPCA emailed Ricky’s owner three times, intercepting her ad on” Used Victoria” when she was trying to find him a new home, due to her financial state, the family was told to go see Penny Stone because she would find him a new home, when Ricky was brought in he was taken out of the back of the mothers car and put in a van and killed immediately by Elk Lake Vet. Ricky was three years old, healthy, loved and no one is accountable for Penny’s actions, apparently it was “A COMEDY OF ERRORS ” that killed Ricky, that is what the family was told by an employee.Why would anyone drive their cherished dog to the SPCA and insist that he be killed. The SPCA are not a no kill shelter and they do not assess dogs to see if they are dangerous or if they can readopt them. They bully and threaten lawsuits and kill sweet gentle dogs then go on the news to say how they save Rabbits at Thetis Lake, and save dogs from high kill shelters in the States, what a bunch of rubbish. How does this continually go on without someone speaking up?
[...] received this response to my open letter to the [...]
Way to go Sarah…I’ve noticed that many companion animal shelters are becoming more truly animal-friendly, but some have a ways to go. It takes a lot of courage to speak up the way you did, and I’m so happy you’re standing up for the animals who are often forgotten in our society.
EXCELLENT JOB SARAH!
You are standing up for truth and what is right.
@ALL who claim that choice is essential and that we should not force people to stop killing animals, just think back to when people said the same thing about slavery or suppression of women. Do you really think that people should always have a choice, regardless of the pain and suffering it causes? Sometimes we do need to evolve and change our ways as a species. So evolve already!
More specifically, think about what the SPCA stands for, Society for Prevention of Cruelty to ANIMALS. The word is ANIMALS! Can you imagine an organization called “The Abolition of Child Explotation Society”, but they would go out and certify child labor factories for their higher standards in working conditions for the children (ie: they will be provided with shoes and brief moments of natural light). Let alone serve dead children for meals at their event?? Wake up people!
We certainly CAN and WILL stand up for what is right. Causing unnecessary cruelty and suffering to animals is unacceptable, especially when there are plentiful alternatives readily available.
GO VEGAN | STOP ANIMAL CRUELTY | EVOLVE
I think, as an organization, you’re right. In fact, I personally find it more important to protect the rights of animals more associated with “Nature” than our pets. I personally don’t find much merit in the practice of keeping animals as pets, and therefore ESPECIALLY don’t see the reasoning behind protecting pets and killing agricultural animals. If I’m going to eat my dog, can I humanely slaughter it?
When I was child, I went to synagogue. Very few of the kids kept kosher… what kid can resist pepperoni?? But the temple didn’t serve pepperoni pizza!!! Because it’s not kosher, and it’s a Jewish temple. Doesn’t that just make sense?? I think the choice is left at the door once you CHOOSE that you support the SPCA.