If you're a Minnesotan, you've probably heard of Give to the Max Day, our state's awesome annual day of giving. For 24 hours on this day, midnight to midnight, non-profit organizations ask for your support to make the world a better place. This year, a generous supporter of ARC's work to help animals has pledged to match all donations made to ARC. This is an amazing opportunity to donate to help animals and know your contribution will make a huge difference. If you've never donated to ARC before, this is the time to do it. You can donate at the Animal Rights Coalition page on givemn.org: https://www.givemn.org/organization/Animal-Rights-Coalition
If you\'re a Minnesotan, you\'ve probably heard of Give to the Max Day, our state\'s awesome annual day of giving. For 24 hours on this day, midnight to midnight, non-profit organizations ask for your support to make the world a better place. This year, a generous supporter of ARC\'s work to help animals has pledged to match all donations made to ARC. This is an amazing opportunity to donate to help animals and know your contribution will make a huge difference. If you\'ve never donated to ARC before, this is the time to do it. You can donate at the Animal Rights Coalition page on givemn.org: https://www.givemn.org/organization/Animal-Rights-Coalition
Hey friends! Who wants to help prepare and serve a hot vegan meal for the Hiawatha Encampment in Minneapolis on Saturday, November 17? Chelsea needs a few more volunteers to help with cooking in the days before the meal and five more servers on the day of the meal. You can email Chelsea at chelsea@animalrightscoalition.com if you're interested in helping.
Hey friends! Who wants to help prepare and serve a hot vegan meal for the Hiawatha Encampment in Minneapolis on Saturday, November 17? Chelsea needs a few more volunteers to help with cooking in the days before the meal and five more servers on the day of the meal. You can email Chelsea at chelsea@animalrightscoalition.com if you\'re interested in helping.
ARC will have a booth at the Healthy Life Expo at the Minneapolis Convention Center where we will be handing out information about how to transition to a vegan diet, giving out vegan food samples, and showing individuals our 3D Virtual Reality video about the lives of farmed animals.
Removing Cancer Causing Household Items to Keep Your Pets Safe: At this free workshop you will learn what cleaning products to remove from your home so that it is safer for you and your animals. Safe, plant-based products will be available for sale and all sales will benefit the animal advocacy work of the Animal Rights Coalition . Location is Ethique Nouveau, 317 W 48th St. in Minneapolis. Please RSVP on the Ethique Nouveau Facebook page event. This is a free event and treats will be provided!
The holidays can be some of the toughest times for vegans when trying to balance relationships with family and friends and your own beliefs. This discussion will address issues like attending non-vegan holidays get-togethers, entertaining family members, whether to skip holiday events altogether, and more. This is an opportunity to share experiences and give advice to one another. This event can also be helpful for those who may not be vegan, but who have vegan family members and friends, and would like to understand how they can be supportive. Vegan snacks will be provided, but feel free to bring something to contribute Location is the ARC office (co-located with Ethique Nouveau) at 317 W 48th St. in Minneapolis. Please register at Vegan Meetup for this free workshop: https://www.meetup.com/vegan-415/
We will continue to work to help other states end the practice of pound seizure, whereby animals in shelters can be claimed by licensed institutions for experimentation purposes.
The Animal Rights Coalition is pleased to announce that Greg Kiefer has joined ARC as the new ARC Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator, and that Chelsea Hassler is staying on board as ARC Program Director. Greg has been an effective, capable, and well-liked volunteer at ARC and brings many skills that will help expand our activism and outreach. In the year Chelsea has been with ARC, she has proven herself a dedicated, reliable, and passionate leader and has grown our outreach efforts significantly.
From helping people transition to a plant-based diet to publicizing the abuse of animals in laboratories to educating the public about the exploitation of animals used in entertainment, ARC’s unique and innovative education and outreach programs reach thousands of people every year. We are confident that Chelsea and Greg will do a great job of leading this work to end the suffering, abuse, and exploitation of animals.
A lifelong animal advocate in our community has incurred massive debt from legal fees for rescuing a starving and abused dog. One of her dear friends and the Animal Rights Coalition are hosting several rummage sales to help defray these costs.
Please bring friends, family, acquaintances. You get the picture – bring one, bring all. There will be lots of new and gently used household items, companion animal items, framed art, and more. First fundraiser is on Saturday, 10/24 from 10:00-4:00 at Minnehaha Free Space, 3747 Minnehaha Ave. in Minneapolis.
Read THE ARREST and COURT STORY of the rescue of a starving and abused dog and learn about what’s wrong with our system of humane enforcement in Minnesota. This dog was failed on so many levels. What is it going to take to get authorities in our state to enforce the laws that the Minnesota legislature has passed in good faith – the same laws that these authorities take an oath to enforce?
It is with a mixture of sadness and gratitude that we announce that Dallas Rising will be stepping down as the Animal Rights Coalition’s Executive Director as of October 15, 2015. For the past seven years, Dallas has been the public face of ARC, initiating new programs, growing existing programs, and carrying out ARC’s mission of ending the suffering, abuse, and exploitation of non-human animals through information, education, and advocacy. Dallas has also demonstrated a strong commitment to fighting all forms of oppression and reducing ARC’s environmental impact. We sincerely thank Dallas for her dedication to ARC and wish her well in her future endeavors.
In the nearly eight years I’ve worked at ARC, I have had the privilege to have my day job support my life long dream and mission to be a serious and powerful force for animals.
I have had the great honor of getting to know and work with some of the best people I’ve ever met because of my position here. I’ve formed some deep and lasting friendships and learned a lot from the courageous, committed, and creative people who volunteer their time and talents for animals via ARC. I have especially enjoyed working with my colleague, Chelsea, who brings such kindness, talent, and wit to our work.
It is for these reasons that I announce my resignation as Executive Director at the Animal Rights Coalition with mixed emotions. I threw myself into it with as much passion and heart as I could, and it’s hard to leave something I’ve put so much of myself into. But it’s time.
My last day is October 15th and I will be staying in the Twin Cities. I look forward to opportunities to continue to serve animals in another capacity and hope to cross paths with many of you again in the future. In the mean time, I will be spending more time with my family, giving extra care and attention to our aging and ailing boys, Max and Taz.
While many people jump at the opportunity to get close to animals by buying exotic animal rides at fairs and fests, they probably wouldn’t if they knew about the suffering the animals endure being treated as amusement park attractions.
Much of the violence isn’t seen by the public because the owners of these operations know that people would be enraged if they knew how these animals are punished and beaten into submission. They have to make the elephants avoidant to punishment so that they will behave in front of spectators.
These animals are chained for many hours every day. They are trucked around the country in small trailers or trucks. If they were allowed to live in the wild, they would have extensive social networks and travel miles upon miles every day. But when they’re sentenced to being “rides”, they have to plod in boring circles day after day with hundreds of pounds on their backs, for hour upon boring, uncomfortable hour.
Join us in protest Saturday, October 3rd from 10am-12 noon. We will meet at the Highway 169 entrance at 3525 145th Street West in Shakopee. Signs will be provided, as will literature to hand out. All you need to do is show up with your sunscreen on and water in hand. If you’d like to carpool from the ARC office in south Minneapolis, please post in the Facebook event.
Krissy is one of the elephants forced to walk in circles all day with people on her back at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Krissy is 26 years old. She was taken from the wild as a baby and since then has endured brutal beatings, electric shocks, and spent most of her life in chains.
This is Mike Swain, son of Bill Swain, the owner of Trunks and Humps, the supplier for the elephant rides at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. You can see Mike Swain beating Krissy, viciously dragging her to the ground with a hook, and kicking her in the face. This video was taken when Mike Swain, Krissy, and Boo were with Bailey Bros. Circus. Krissy is now “owned” by Bill Swain and Texas-based Trunks and Humps.
The Minnesota Renaissance Festival needs to know that this is unacceptable. Join our demonstration on Sunday, September 6 from noon-2:00 p.m. Meet at the Highway 169 entrance at 3525 145th Street West in Shakopee. Carpool will also be available from the ARC office. Signs will be provided, as will literature to hand out. All you need to do is show up with your sunscreen on and water in hand. More details at Minnesota Animal Rights Meetup.
When an intelligent, social, endangered elephant is reduced to an amusement park ride, it degrades us all in light of what we know about their complex needs. Elephants move in big, open spaces, live in large herds, and show compassion for family members. Camels also travel for miles a day in the open desert and have extensive social networks in the wild. In contrast, wild animals used for rides endure confinement, long journeys in cramped vehicles, brutal control methods, and physical violence.You can help end this abuse.
Many people haven’t thought about animal rides from the animals’ point of view. These incredible creatures are carted from one location to another and then prodded to walk in circles day after day after day. Even the U.S. Department of Agriculture warns, “You always put yourself at risk when you go near an elephant, no matter how good the trainer/handler and elephant appear to be.” This is because elephants are wild animals who are forced to comply with their handlers’ demands by force, and sometimes they will reach a limit, resist their captors, and revolt.
Yet, despite their knowledge of the inherent cruelty and danger, the Minnesota Renaissance Festival continues to feature exotic animal rides. Call the Ren Fest promoter, Mid-America Festivals, at 952-445-7361 or email them at info@mafestivals.com and let them know many festivals have dropped these rides and you’d like them to be next.
Join our protest on Sunday, August 30th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to raise awareness about these rides. Meet at the Highway 169 entrance to the festival at 3525 145th Street West in Shakopee. Find more details at Minnesota Animal Rights Meetup
Sit out on the rides, not on the animals; there are lots of ways to have a great time at the fest without hurting animals!
Jane Goddall said it best: “I was shocked and outraged to hear the story of Cecil, Zimbabwe’s much loved lion. Not only is it incomprehensible to me that anyone would want to kill an endangered animal (fewer than 20,000 wild lions in Africa today) but to lure Cecil from the safety of a national park and then to shoot him with a crossbow…? I have no words to express my repugnance. He was not even killed outright, but suffered for hours before finally being shot with a bullet. And his magnificent head severed from his wounded body. And this behaviour is described as a “sport.” Only one good thing comes out of this – thousands of people have read the story and have also been shocked. Their eyes opened to the dark side of human nature. Surely they will now be more prepared to fight for the protection of wild animals and the wild places where they live. Therein lies the hope.”
Honor Cecil by taking action: Write to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service immediately to urge them to issue a final rule listing the lion as “Threatened” and stopping all trophy imports.
The Animal Rights Coalition hopes that Cecil’s murder will not only open peoples’ eyes to the senseless killing of wild animals for “sport”, whether that be lions in Africa or bears in Minnesota, but that it will also cause people to think about all of the animals killed daily, whether for sport, supposed entertainment, or a temporary craving for a hamburger. Consider moving to a plant-based diet and make the world a more peaceful place, both for yourself and for the animals.
Growth. Innovation. Opportunity. 2014 was a year of strategic expansion for ARC. We saw victories and growth in our programs and campaigns to help animals. We experimented with new ideas for outreach via social media online, tried out new events and venues for in-person outreach, and improved our volunteer program with formal training for volunteers in specific areas of outreach. We learned a lot and we’re putting that new knowledge to work right now.
We want to thank our volunteers and donors for your gifts of time and funds in 2014. You are the backbone of the work we do. None of what we accomplish could be done without you. Our organization is only as extraordinary as those who support us. Together we’ll continue to think outside the box and learn and grow, putting each new lesson to work as we reshape the world for animals. Please check out our 2014 Annual Report to see what we accomplished for animals with your help.
Chicken Run Rescue recently rescued a handsome rooster named Turnip from St. Paul and 7 hens from a cruelty confiscation in Minneapolis. Turnip was lucky. CRR was able to place him, but the next discarded boy may not be so lucky.
If you live in St. Paul, let your city council member know that St. Paul’s rooster ban needs to be lifted as the ban is a death sentence for roosters who represent 50% of the chicks hatched for the backyard chicken fad.
Turnip and most of the hens lost part of their combs and a few toes to frostbite. The standards for care in both cities need to be improved and enforced. If the Cities are going to allow chickens, they need to step up to their responsibilities.
This site aims at the support of reuse / the change cycle of the ASCII art (AA). Copy and paste are free. Let's enjoy Ascii Art culture without forgetting respect to other AA craftsmen.
The Devil laughs as i draw my sword, this day will end of fright. Send your gods and send your demons, the Destroyer rises to fight. Follow Hardy...the winds will folly we sail to fight the creators tonight. No gods no masters only the vikings and man made disasters. My family killed by plague I will not fade, Valhalla take me this day.