✌️ VEGAN VICTORIES MONTHLY #18
We're winning the fight against fur farming!
Hey, teammate! ✊
If you’re reading this on Friday, happy World Vegan Day!
Let’s celebrate by reading the most positive Vegan newsletter on the internet - your only free source for all of this month’s most positive Vegan news from around the world! 👇️
🇷🇴 Romania Bans Fur Farming for Good
Thousands of caged chinchillas and minks are forcefully bred, enslaved, and gassed for their fur each year in Romania.
Not anymore.
Romania is the 22nd European country to do so, and with 44 countries in Europe, we’re officially at the halfway mark!
Let’s go!
🇺🇸 Torture Breeding Pets Banned in Ojai, CA
Companion animals bred for certain aesthetic qualities face numerous debilitating health issues like intervertebral disc disease, syringomyelia, and just straight up not being able to breathe. This is called “torture breeding,” and it’s all to meet an aesthetic demand in the marketplace.
Since this demand for breeds like French Bulldogs is so normalized, we need to cut the supply.
And that’s exactly what the recent signing of the Companion Animal Protection Ordinance did. Ojai is now officially the first city in the USA to ban torture breeding!
The new law bans the breeding of breathing-impaired breeds such as French bulldogs, English bulldogs, pugs, boxers, Boston terriers, Persian cats, as well as breeds with exaggerated features, such as dachshunds, cavalier King Charles spaniels, and Scottish Fold cats.
A big win for the future of companion animals!
👮 Veganism Removed From NHS Counter-Terrorism Training
In the eyes of some of our friends, family, and even the UK’s National Health Service, being opposed to the killing of animals for 10 minutes of taste pleasure means we are secretly RADICALIZED EXTREMISTS. At least, that’s what the National Pig Association told them.
I wish they didn’t expose us like that…LOL.
In an effort to preserve our DEVASTATING SECRET, the Vegan Society had to intervene.
Phew! At least in the UK, we can go back to eating our grass in peace.
🏫 Veganism Taught in Local UK School
The Vegan Society is at it with another win by making our movement truly future forward.
Now, students in select areas of the UK will have the opportunity to explore Veganism through a wonderful lens:
“…a compassionate worldview that encourages respect for all living beings and our environment.”
Definitely not terrorism, and definitely a win for our future!
📅 Veganuary Works: 27% Still Vegan
I’ll just let the numbers from Veganuary’s 6 month survey speak for themselves:
37% are eating at least 75% less meat and other animal products than pre-Veganuary.
95% of those who are not fully vegan said they’re likely to try a vegan diet again in the future.
27% are still eating a fully vegan diet.
Based on the 5,931 survey responses, this equates to 1,601 new Vegans this year. If we take a conservative estimate of 50 animals killed for consumption per person per year, that means 80,050 farmed animals were spared by Veganuary participants for this year alone. And that’s just based on those who responded to the survey!
If you know a new Vegan, show them this newsletter and we’ll all keep on being part of the winning team :)
📈 UK Plant-Based Products Are Officially “Mainstream”
According to a new report by the Good Food Institute, around 25% of people living in the UK are now buying plant-based meat and milk more than once a year. 23% say they purchase plant-based meat at least once a month.
While this isn’t 50%, it’s big enough for it to be called “mainstream” by food reporters and big enough for food corporations to respond in big ways…
🌱 136 Year Old Italian Meat Company Goes 100% Plant-Based
Gruppo Tonazzo, one of Italy’s oldest meat producers, has been slaughtering Pigs and Cows using “traditional Italian butchery methods” since 1888.
After owners Albino and Stefano Tonazzo saw a line of trucks carrying soybeans to one of their “farms” in Sao Paolo, Brazil, they learned that the energy needed to produce one unit of animal protein was the same as that needed to produce 12 units of plant protein…
That seed was planted 36 years ago.
This month, it sprouted. Gruppo Tonazzo made the decision to close all of its meat-related operations to focus entirely on plant-based proteins in their Kioene brand, already the leader in Italy!
Why?
“As pioneers and key players in this market, we feel a deep responsibility towards future generations, and we want to help protect the Earth from continuous environmental deterioration. We are aware of the need to help people take care of their well-being, starting with food.”
With over 100 products, enjoyed by 2.3 million Italian households, plant-based products like these are officially mainstream, indeed. :)
☕ Starbucks Drops Vegan Milk Up-Charge
Animal activists have sent over 160,000 letters and protested at numerous locations demanding that Starbucks end the Vegan milk discrimination.
Finally, we won!
Nevertheless, it’s not over yet. We must turn Vegan milk equivalence into Vegan milk superiority! I predict that one day, it’ll be Cow’s milk that has the up-charge, and I’ll be here to report on that Vegan Victory when it comes. :)
For now, no more up-chargies on our starbies.
🍔 Cultivated Burger Reaches Price Parity
Right now, Good Meat’s cultivated chicken costs around $20/lb (€40.52/kg), and it’s only 3% cultivated meat. The rest of it is comprised of plant-based ingredients. Not all cultivated meat is like this…
This one isn’t 3% cultivated meat, but 90% cultivated meat. No compromises.
A huge difference for a huge win!
🚧 EU Blocks Hungary from Banning Cultivated Meat
When their entire animal-killing industry is threatened by cultivated meat, of course they’re going to try and stop it.
Not on our watch.
In July of this year, Hungary proposed a ban on cultivated meat. However, the European Commission has deemed the Hungarian ban on cultured meat “unjustified” and potentially harmful to the European single market.
We continue onward into the future!
🐇 Big Wins for US and EU Rabbits
Petco, a leading American pet supply store chain, has passed a new adoption-only policy for the third most popular companion animal in the US: Rabbits! No longer will Petco be supporting massively cruel commercial breeding operations.
Adopt don’t shop!
In another Victory for Rabbits…
The presence of Pyrogens - fever-inducing substances that can accidentally contaminate injectable drugs - have been tested using their bodies since the 1900s. This month, the European Pharmacopoeia Commission has put a stop to testing Pyrogens on Rabbits for good.
At LEAST 25,000 Rabbits will be spared from this alone.
Progress can be slow, but we’ve been speeding it up! :)
🚫 Missouri’s Last Animal Gas Chamber Shut Down
A huge Vegan Victory for potential companion animals in shelters!
With Missouri’s decision to dismantle the gas chamber, Wyoming is now the last US state that allows the use of gas chambers for euthanizing domestic animals.
One more state until they’re all gone.
👪 World’s 1st Plant-Based Festival for Kids
To help kids and parents connect the dots to the ‘why’ of a plant-based lifestyle, we need fun Vegan spaces.
Sarah Feoli, a Vegan mom of two with more than a decade of experience in running festivals, is coordinating the 1st ever Plant Powered Kids Festival in Brooklyn, New York!
I don’t have any, but imagining kiddos and their parents attend Vegan concerts, expert-led talks, and enjoy Vegan food at an event like this makes me think this is a sweet Vegan Victory.
I know there will be more to come!
🚜 RSPCA’s Catering is Now 100% Vegan
The UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has been under fire for lying about the enforcement of their welfare standards throughout this year.
It’s a Vegan Victory to see them listen to one animal rights activist group, Animal Rising, and implicitly admit that the “food” they “assure” as “humane” does not even have a place in their own headquarters.
Change must come from within, and it’s not stopping!
To the 40 new subscribers added to our 340-strong Vegan team, I hope these Vegan Victories have left you feeling as hopeful and inspired as the rest of us!
I write for who I believe are the most important group of Humans in the world: those who stand up for non-Human animals. ✊ As a Vegan doing animal-rights activism on the streets myself, I know this non-Vegan world can leave us feeling hopeless, burnt out, and like we’re losing. We’re not. We just need the proof! If you relate, I’m honored you’ve given me your attention. You could have given it to animals, and you chose to invest it with me. I take it in the highest regard.
If I’ve made you feel a little more hopeful, please consider sharing this with a fellow Vegan! It’s a free, 15 second, fun surprise gesture of goodwill that will make them see you as their source of Vegan inspiration. I guarantee you’ll be making their day a little more hopeful and our movement a little more positive. :)
Thank you.
Until every animal is free,
Dani ✌️
Hi Dani,
Wow, how did I not see this earlier? This is great!!! I just started a (weekly) newsletter with positive vegan news for, well, all the reasons you shared above... had I know about your newsletter, I might have just referred people to it instead. :) I guess that's a sign that we can never have too many vegan news, right?
Some great news here, thanks for sharing!