On Monday, July 26th, a low budget animal lib film screening at Anthology Film Archives became a fascinatingly larger phenomenon. Animal welfare personalities like Moby and Russell Simmons appeared, tons of disparate vegan groups showed up to table across the entire theater (the star being a rescued beagle from Azopharma's animal testing laboratory who tabled for W.A.R.), and AR legend Andy Stepanian gave a speech in full ski mask gear about compassion in the face of animal testing horrors that made people weep openly. Needless to say, this type of thing doesn't usually happen when a low budget, non-distributed, independent film about animal rights screens in the East Village. So why did it happen this time? In a nutshell, people flocked to the sold-out show because they heard it was excellent enough to warrant such a turnout, and they realized it was way past due for a film like it to be made and seen.

Interestingly, there was never before a professionally-made narrative feature film about the growing world of animal liberation groups. Despite the sheer amount of political attention and defense budget that the Bush administration devoted to animal welfare groups, and despite the impressively unconstitutional nature of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act passed during the Bush era, scifi/horror movies like 12 Monkeys or 28 Days Later were the closest anyone's come to an ALF movie. Enter Bold Native.

This weekend's going to rock your veggie world, if you're into that sorta thing! Veggie Prom is tonight, followed by a post-prom potluck picnic at Central Park. Finally, the Veggie Pride Parade rounds out the weekend Sunday starting at 11 a.m. in the Meatpacking district.

Hungry after all the parading, yes? Z Pizza's got vegan slices this weekend, starting today! That means no more staring in their window wishing you had friends to go in on a pie with you, and no aging pizza in your fridge. (But leftover pizza is the best, no joke!)

Jonathan Horowitz's art exhibit at a former meat locker in the Village called "Go Vegan!" looks brilliant. Have you been? What'd ya think?

At least two carriage horses have crashed in the last two weeks, Gothamist reports. It's been just a month since the City Council approved changes to the carriage horse industry that support more humane treatment of the horses, but the new legislation does nothing to protect horses from injury due to crashes. Hey, it looks like you can't make carriage-hauling safe or humane for horses unless you eliminate it entirely. News. Flash.

The LA Times blog's "L.A. Unleashed" column has a snappy animal round-up of its own: Labradoodle breeder's regrets, gray whale in Israel, and researchers hurt mice to see the looks on their faces. Guh.

The Humane Society of the United States gives us a peek into Richard Berman's absurdly shady lobbying tactics and how they threaten animals. You wanna read this!

Remember when Compassion Over Killing encouraged us to enter Dunkin' Donuts's "Create Dunkin's Next Donut Contest," and asked us to share our vegan creations with them? They've picked their favorite 12 contestants' dreamed-up sweets and will make one of those dreams come true! Vote for your favorite by next Friday, May 21 (and you'll be entered to win one of 10 prizes, too). Vegan Treats will produce the winning doughnut, which will be announced in June. I will take a box of each!

When Andy Stepanian and Dara Lovitz gave a talk on SHAC7 and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) at NYU Law School on Tuesday, most of the audience came half-expecting to hear a legal seminar (Lovitz is the author of Muzzling a Movement). Almost no one expected to laugh or cry with inspiration before the talk ended, although almost everyone did. (We interviewed Andy before this event.)

This was not a speech or a classroom teaching. Dara spoke so candidly about the absurdities of animal enterprise terrorism laws that even the law students had to start laughing with her. Andy spoke so painfully earnestly to everyone that few had dry eyes by the end of the talk. No one walked away depressed, though, as the duo were determined to show everyone exactly how much potential we all have to effect positive change, despite how much money and effort the animal enterprises dump into making us feel powerless and small.

Dara, the lawyer, spoke first. And the takeaway of her talk wasn't "the history and overview of AETA," but rather just how impressively unconstitutional the AETA is, and how it managed to be drafted anyway. She explained very frankly how a series of unconscionably illegal laws culminating in AETA were pulled over everyone's eyes through passionately written passages. Passages about how animal activists victimize dying people who can only get a cure through animal testing. Passages that literally say that we owe so much of our lives to the selfless people in charge of the factory farm industry. And she put us face to face with how so many of our senators and policymakers are CEO's and beneficiaries of devastating animal enterprises.

Andy Stepanian is one of six activists known as the SHAC 7 who were convicted under the federal Animal Enterprise Protection Act for their involvement in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign in the U.S. SHAC's target was the notorious animal testing lab Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), which uses roughly 70,000 animals per year for product-testing. The strategic campaign effectively threatened the financial stability of one of the world's most profitable research laboratories, which brought it to the attention of the federal government. The FBI launched an intense investigation that landed six activists in federal court, accused of charges of conspiracy. As a result, more aggressive legislation specifically targeting animal activism, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, was passed in 2006 to safeguard animal enterprises in the future.

While no living creature was harmed by their actions, the U.S. SHAC activists were sentenced to one to six years in federal prison. To date, all but one defendant have been released. Lauren Gazzola was released to a halfway house last Wednesday. Kevin Kjonaas remains incarcerated. Their case is currently under appeal.

Andy was released a year ago and now works as a publicist. He will be giving a rare public talk about his personal experience this coming Tuesday at NYU, "Muzzling A Movement: Free Speech, Animal Protection and Terrorism Prosecutions," with the author Dara Lovitz. Cat Clyne caught up with Andy at Atlas Cafe to check in on how he's been doing and what he's been up to.

In a nutshell, what is next Tuesday's talk about?
Muzzling a Movement is a new book by Dara Lovitz coming out by Lantern Books in September. It covers the breadth of how laws have failed animals. On the prosecutorial end, laws are failing animals in the sense that animal welfare groups that are trying to prosecute animal abusers are facing increased opposition. Laws are also failing animals in the sense that new "designer" legislation is being passed to directly combat animal activism.

• The Catalan parliament passed a vote to ban bullfighting by including bulls in an animal cruelty law that protects certain animals from any kind of torture. Yahoooo!
• In other animals-are-not-for-entertainment wins, a charity claims to have freed the last dancing bear in India on Friday, December 18.
• The Brooklyn Paper says Red Bamboo Brooklyn's eminent closing is a sign of dying cultural interest in vegetarianism, and notes that RB owner, Jason Wong, is no longer a vegetarian. (Did everyone know that? I didn't know that.) Wong told The Brooklyn Paper, "The concern now is more about locally grown and less of a carbon footprint. Being a carnivore doesn’t mean you don’t care." This is true. It could also mean you are ignorant. What's your excuse, Jason Wong? And where is the hard, non-incidental evidence that vegetarianism is on the decline?
• Pups can thrive on a vegetarian diet, a report published in the British Journal of Nutrition says. But you already knew that.
• This is NOT a zebra. Prepare to be depressed.
• New restaurant reviews on Peacefood Cafe, Cocoa V, Sacred Chow, and HanGawi. Leave your thoughts for posterity, people.

If you haven't watched Morgan Spurlock's ingenious show 30 Days, at least watch this fantastic episode from June '08, in which he plants a hunter in the gentle, competent hands of a family of vegan animal activists. It's got EVERYTHING: Face-to-face interactions with rescued factory-farmed creatures? Check. PETA demos? Mmmmhmm. The insides of a dairy production facility? Yeah, they've somehow got that. Animal rescue in action? It's all here. You gotta watch this. And send it to at least 50 of your closest friends. (Via VegWeb. Yay, internet revival of this.)



And on the topic of vegan TV exposure, anyone else see Dr. Oz turn a cowboy vegan? Now THAT guy knows how to scare folks into a healthy diet.

**Edit: Two late additions for Tuesday, June 16**

Be alerted of these and other events we think you'll care about by subscribing to our calendar.

Events are free unless otherwise noted.

Now until June 14

Watch new documentary HOME free on YouTube. More info in our recent blog post.

Saturday, June 13

National Pigeon Day: Praise the pigeon at Central Park and all over the country. Our very own Patrick Kwan will be speaking.
12-4pm
Central Park, Pilgrim Hill

Get friendly with a neeeeighbor at A Horse of Course!, a walk and discussion with Kathy Stevens at Catskill Animal Sanctuary.
1-4pm
$15, or $5 for members. Register in advance by calling Julie at (845) 336-8447.

Woodstock FAS hosts its family-friendly Jamboree. Games, face-painting, animals, and food by Isa Moskowitz. That's right--another chance to dose on Isa before she heads back to Oregon.
11am-5pm
$10. Register in advance at the website.

Tuesday, June 15

Protest against the netting and gassing to death of at least 2,000 NYC geese
12-2pm
Port Authority Headquarters, 225 Park Ave. South

Ingrid Newkirk's book-signing for The PETA Practical Guide to Animals Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble
7pm
Borders, Columbus Circle

Thursday, June 18

Mercy for Animals celebrates the opening of its New York office with vegan appetizers and drinks at MooShoes. And wait, it gets better than vegan food and booze: MooShoes will be donating 10% of that day's in-store and online sales to MFA, so you finally have a scale-tipping reason to get that pair of Simples.
6:30-9:30pm
MooShoes, 78 Orchard St.

Friday, June 19

Join Mary and Peter Max for the kick-off party for the production of Standardized Testing. The film "follows PATH founder Kelly Overton...as he attempts to return his diplomas and get his tuition refunded in an effort to bring attention to the dangerous and wasteful biomedical research being done at the universities." Food will be provided by 4 Course Vegan, BabyCakes NYC, Blackwell's Organic Gelato, Candle Cafe, Frey Vineyards, The Power of Food, Tuthilltown Spirits, Vegan Treats Bakery, and others.
6:30-8:30pm
The Max Studio
37 W. 65th St., 7th floor
$100 and up. Purchase tickets here.

While the same atrocities go on day after day in animal testing labs, this year World Week for Animals in Laboratories, April 18-26, seems just a little less bleak. Why?

• The Environmental Protection Agency, the National Toxicology Program and the National Institutes of Health have agreed to implement new technologies that will allow for the phasing out of animal testing.
• President Obama’s reversal of the Bush administration’s stance on embryonic stem cell use is another step on the path toward the end of animal testing.
• In response to Obama’s pledge to scrutinize federal spending on a line-by-line basis, In Defense of Animals is calling the government’s attention to “wasteful and inhumane experiments.”
• IDA is also asking Obama to award stimulus funding to the NIH for nonanimal testing only.
• The Great Ape Protection Act, which is currently in the House, seeks to “prohibit the conducting of invasive research on great apes.”
• And as of March, “the EU has banned all animal tests for cosmetic ingredients, formulations and final products. In addition, the sale of cosmetics and ingredients that have been tested on animals, regardless of where the testing occurred, is also prohibited, with the exception of three test areas... The final three test areas will be banned in March 2013.”

Today is the final day of voting in the Ideas for Change in America competition, one of those massive online voting thingies. The top ten ideas will be "presented to the Obama administration." This may not actually mean much (if I mail a letter to the White House, I'm presenting an idea), but the site is generating a lot of attention and discussion. Whether we can directly influence Obama's agenda or not, wouldn't it be nice to get some pro-animal items to win this contest?

You can vote for all four of these (not just one):

• Pass the Puppy Uniform Protection Statute to Help Stop Puppy Mills
• Stop Animal Torture
• Ban Breed Specific Legislation
• Vegan School Lunch Options

Update: Voting is now closed.

We blogged it a few weeks ago, but this is worth another mention. If you are anywhere near New York City, and you care at all about animal issues, you are a fool and a loser if you don't visit Banksy's "Village Pet Store And Charcoal Grill" at 89 7th Avenue between West 4th and Bleeker Street.

The shop touches on humans' exploitation of animals for food, chemical and behavioral testing, fur, and entertainment. I've never been a big fan of Banksy's drawing/stencil work, but this show is just great, conceptually technologically, and aesthetically. It's subversive and clever, sure, but also quite touching and unnerving.

It's great how it's just a store-front. I suspect most visitors stumbled upon the place, rather than seeking it out. Even if you don't think you like or understand fine art, you'll be OK here. It's just a mock store, with animatronics, just like at Disneyland.

The show closes on October 31st, Halloween. The price and the hours are friendly--free admission, open 10am-midnight. Go!

(There's lots more there than what's in the video.)