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Thank you for helping us help animals in 2019!

It’s been another amazing year here at the Vancouver Humane Society and we have achieved so much for animals this year, thanks to the generosity of our supporters, like you!

We wanted to take moment to show you some of the highlights and achievements of our work here at VHS throughout 2019, thanks to your support:

 

McVitie Fund emergency veterinary help

During the year, we’ve helped over 45 animals through our McVitie Fund, providing emergency medical help and spay/neuter to the animal companions of people on limited incomes.

Rodeo

Our Calgary Stampede campaign had coverage in 31 media outlets, many quoting our response to the death of six horses in the chuckwagon races when we called it a “national disgrace.”

Nearly 1000 people participated in our email campaign urging the Stampede to suspend the chuckwagon races to see if it can be made safer. The Stampede says it will conduct a review the race. Another 6500 people joined us in emailing the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association to urge the association to explicitly oppose rodeos.

VHS also exposed the use of electric prods on animals at B.C.’s Quesnel Rodeo after exposing the same contractor using prods at the Chilliwack Fair rodeo. 

We drew public attention to the decision by the Canadian Football League to hold a rodeo at the Grey Cup that resulted in more than 3200 people complaining to the CFL via our website.

Go Veg and Plant-based Plates

We know that the sheer number of animals being raised for food every year in Canada makes it a leading animal protection issue. In response, we’re working hard to help individuals and institutions transition towards more humane plant-based diets and to reduce the high demand for animal products that drives factory farming.

In 2019, this included:

  • Continuing to support Meatless Monday campaigns that introduce meatless options at schools throughout Metro Vancouver.
  • Launching our new Plant-Based Plates initiative, which builds on the success of our Meatless Monday work and aims to transition public menus toward offering more humane plant-based options.

We kicked off the new project with a staff culinary training and guest chef pop-up at the BC Children’s & Women’s Hospital.

We’ve been engaging with policy-makers at the municipal and provincial levels in an effort to raise awareness and support for prioritizing plant-based foods in their policies. This includes a proposal, put forward in partnership with a group of students from Sutherland secondary school, to the District of North Vancouver Council that encourages examining municipal food spending and prioritizing plant-based options.

  • VHS is also participating in the City of Vancouver’s Food Solutions Lab, which aims to research equitable ways in which the City and its partners can help shift diets toward those which are better for people and the planet. 

Outreach and events

As part of our Go Veg campaign, we launched a transit ad urging people to consider the ethics of meat consumption. The ad appeared on 13 Vancouver buses and 12 buses on the Burnaby B-Line. We also attended Vancouver’s Veg Expo, promoting our message to the 15,000 attendees. We attended 25 other public events and distributed 5800 leaflets encouraging people to try a plant-based diet. 

 

Carriage horses

We made complaints to the Yaletown, Commercial Drive and Kerrisdale business associations concerning their Christmas promotions, which included carriage horse rides, expressing our concerns about the welfare and safety of the horses. VHS also reached out to the Victoria City Council, calling for an end to horse carriages in the city.

 

Wildlife

VHS joined a local wildlife coalition working on getting wildlife-killing contests banned throughout the province. We signed a coalition letter to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations’ urging a ban.

Communications

VHS published ten opinion editorials in various news media during the year, making the case for better treatment of animals on a number of issues. We had coverage in more than 50 media outlets, published 46 blog posts and used social media to reach thousands of people to change hearts and minds in favour of compassion toward animals. We also engaged with our supporters and the public via action-alert emails and our own newsletter and e-newsletter.

Thank you for helping us achieve all of this for animals and so much more!

Of course there is still so much more to do in our work for animals in 2020 and despite our efforts, animals continue to suffer everyday. Please consider making an end of year donation, to allow us to continue advocating on behalf of all animals today and for the future.

On behalf of all of us here at the Vancouver Humane Society, thank you, Happy Holidays and we wish you a Happy New Year!

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Help us build a kinder community for animals on Giving Tuesday!

The Vancouver Humane Society and The Happy Herd Farm Sanctuary are partnering to raise funds to help animals now and in the future.

Every year in Canada, more than 800 million animals are raised on cruel factory farms before they are sent for slaughter. They suffer from confinement and from being denied the chance to live and behave naturally.  Yet science has shown that each animal, just like your pet cat or dog, has his or her own unique personality. That’s why we say every animal is someone, not something.

This year, on Giving Tuesday, December 3rd, we are again partnering with The Happy Herd Farm Sanctuary to make life better for farmed animals.  Giving Tuesday is the annual opportunity to put your dollars toward a cause that’s near and dear to your heart – this year, we hope you’ll make it the plight of animals on factory farms.  All donations will be split between both charities.

At VHS, we work year-round to draw public and media attention to the treatment of farmed animals. Our Go Veg campaign encourages people to try a plant-based diet, which reduces the demand that drives factory farming. We’ve recently launched our new Plant-Based Plates initiative which builds on the success of our Meatless Monday project. Our programs have helped institutions rethink the role of plants on the plate and improve access to climate-friendly, healthy and humane options on menus. Through menu planning and culinary support, we assist institutions, such as schools, businesses and healthcare providers, in incorporating new and trendy plant-based dishes that help them meet client demand and reflect their commitment to protecting the planet, public health and animal welfare.  And our rodeo campaign is exposing cruelty and showing that “livestock” are not just commodities to be brutalized for entertainment, but sentient animals capable of feeling physical and emotional pain.

Our partners at The Happy Herd Farm Sanctuary have shown how rescued farmed animals, free of cruelty and confinement, can flourish as individuals. The sanctuary provides a forever home for all types of animals where they can live out their entire lives in a beautiful, natural setting where they are treated with kindness and respect. Visiting Happy Herd and meeting the animals can be a life-changing experience. You will quickly see them as “friends, not food.”

On December 3rd (and before!), you can donate directly to our joint appeal, but you can also help by supporting the generous (and cruelty-free) local businesses who are partnering with VHS and Happy Herd. On Giving Tuesday, they will be launching a variety of special offers and promotions, all raising funds to help us help animals.  Watch our website and social media channels for updates as we get closer to December 3rd– or sign up for our action alerts.

Giving Tuesday is your chance to make life better for farmed animals.  Don’t miss it!

 

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You can become a Humane Hero!

You have the opportunity to be part of a special group of animal heroes who, through regular monthly gifts, help Vancouver Humane access stable, long-term funding for animals in need. Monthly donations are a simple, cost-effective way to make regular contributions in support of our work to expose animal abuse and assist individuals, businesses and governments to end animal suffering, cruelty and exploitation.

Here are some of the benefits of monthly giving:

It’s affordable

You can contribute with a customizable monthly payment that suits you. Monthly giving is easy and convenient for you. Your gift will be automatically made through your bank account or credit card or online through Canada Helps.

It’s flexible

Monthly gifts are easy to change, cancel, or temporarily suspend if your situation changes.

You’re helping the environment

Donating on a monthly basis is better for the environment as it reduces the amount of mail sent to and from you and VHS. You will receive a consolidated tax receipt for your gifts at the end of every year.

Most importantly, it’s effective!

By lowering the administration costs, more of your donation goes directly towards helping animals. Your monthly donation gives us the ability to plan ahead for the future as well as helping animals today. As a monthly donor, you can choose to direct your donations to a specific campaign such as Go Veg, Rodeo or our McVitie Fund, which helps sick or injured animals in need, or you can donate to our general fund and your gift will provide support where the need is greatest.

You can become a monthly donor online through Canada Helps. Simply click here to be redirected to our page.

To become a monthly donor by credit card or direct debit, please email claire@vancouverhumanesociety.bc.ca or call the office at 604-266-9744.

Thank you for helping us help the animals that need us most!

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Why is a humane society talking about plant-based diets?

“Put simply, when we eat animal products we hurt both farmed and wild animals”

 

Anyone who is familiar with Vancouver Humane’s work or follows our social media channels will notice that we encourage people to try a plant-based diet. Some people, especially those who see a humane society’s work as limited to helping companion animals, might wonder why we put such emphasis on changing diets.

The most obvious reason is that the fewer meat and dairy products we consume, the fewer animals need to be slaughtered. Another reason is that reducing animal-based food consumption negates the case made by industry for factory farming, which exists because of the demand for intensively-produced, cheap meat and dairy.  In short, eating fewer animal products means less slaughter and suffering. It’s also worth noting that 60 per cent of all mammals on earth are livestock, so addressing factory farming means helping large numbers of animals.

“There is substantial evidence that meat consumption contributes to global warming” 

But cutting meat consumption benefits animals in other important ways. Most people are now aware of the threat of climate change to the planet – and that means a threat to animals as well as humans. There is substantial evidence that meat consumption contributes to global warming. (The United Nations says that the livestock sector produces 14.5 per cent of human-generated global greenhouse gas emissions.) And there is no doubt climate change is having an impact on wildlife. As the WWF says, “From polar bears in the Arctic to marine turtles off the coast of Africa, our planet’s diversity of life is at risk from the changing climate.”

Aside from contributing to the harm to wildlife through global warming, meat consumption is having a negative impact on animals by causing other environmental damage. A 2017 WWF study found that excessive animal product consumption is responsible for 60 per cent of all biodiversity loss, due to the massive amount of land being used to grow feed for livestock. A previous study on biodiversity loss concluded that: “The consumption of animal-sourced food products by humans is one of the most powerful negative forces affecting the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems and biological diversity. Livestock production is the single largest driver of habitat loss, and both livestock and feedstock production are increasing in developing tropical countries where the majority of biological diversity resides.”  Put simply, when we eat animal products we hurt both farmed and wild animals.

“Livestock production is the single largest driver of habitat loss”

Our focus on reducing the consumption of animal products doesn’t mean we don’t also work to improve the lives of animals currently suffering on factory farms.  We publicly demand accountability for incidents of deliberate animal cruelty on farms and we routinely push for better conditions for farmed animals through, for example, government consultations.

We also make time to address other issues such as rodeos, animals in captivity and the plight of animals whose welfare is often overlooked.

And we haven’t forgotten our precious companion animals, who we help through our McVitie Fund when they are sick and injured.

It’s your donations that make all this work possible. Whether you want to make a better future for animals or help them right here and now, your support will make a real difference.

Take action: Our Go Veg campaign
News: Our latest article on the Daily Hive