GALAVANTING

On Saturday, May 14, 2011, Farm Sanctuary, the largest Farmed Animal Sanctuary held their 25th Anniversary Gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Mover, Anja Keister and I are both advocates for animals and made a point to attend this Gala. We admire Farm Sanctuary because their achievements are beyond astonishing. After 25 years of unconditional commitment to ending farm animal suffering they now have unwavering support of politicians, celebrities and professionals. Most importantly they inspire compassion through education, opportunities to have personal relationships with rescued animals and by telling their stories.

At Farm Sanctuary, these animals are our friends, not our food. -Farm Sanctuary

Farm Sanctuary 25th Anniversary Gala CELEBRITY GUESTS: Jesse Eisenberg, Corey Feldman, Rory Freedman, Bonnie-Jill Laflin, Carol Leifer, Nellie McKay, Wendie Malick, Michael Nouri, Eric Roberts, Ally Sheedy, Russell Simmons, Loretta Swit, Shana Wall, Fred Willard, and many more! A glimpse of our evening:

For more information on Farm Sanctuary visit, FarmSanctuary.org.

Too Young

Tremendous injustice is occurring all over the world. The most innocent and fragile of living creatures have no voice. Children are making textiles, toys (which they will never play with) and matches, among many other items. We call this Child labor. Child Trafficking is another malicious form of modern slavery. Each day, more children are trafficked into prostitution, forced labor, child marriage and other slavery-like conditions. Each day sees the growth of skills and experience of traffickers and those who purchase trafficked persons. Isn't slavery illegal? I guess not.

In our society we seek the most "delicious" food and at what cost? Do we know at what level of cruelty the farmers reach for particular forms of meat or dairy? Male chicks are useless to egg farms so they are simply plucked up and loaded into a grinder or left in a dumpster to die.

Veal production is also a bi-product of the dairy industry. It's beyond me how this kind of medieval torture is still around? Pulled from their mother immediately after birth, fed an anemic diet in a wooden crate to small to lie down in and then killed after 18 or 20 weeks.

You may ask what can I do about this? Being informed should be your first bit of effort. There are so many resources online for you to peruse. Then avoid companies that use child labor, create artistic works that educate your audiences, avoid cruel farming practices and you'll make a world of difference. All we have is each other to rely upon. It isn't difficult to be compassionate. It's simply difficult to know these ethical issues exist and then not do anything about it!