Speciesism: prejudice or discrimination based on species; especially:discrimination against animals.

All around the world wild animals are fighting against humans for their very existence and scientists are predicting a human-caused sixth extinction. Farmed animals are seen only as “stock” without regard to who they are individually, their pain, or their fears.

We humans love our “pets” and other animals who have been deemed our “companions” while participating in activities each day that cause other animals to suffer and die. Are we incapable as a species of activating our empathy and taking a fresh look at our relationships with other species?.

Join ARC and director Mark Devries as we co-host the Minnesota premiere of Speciesism: The Movie at 7:00 p.m. on March 13 at the Lagoon Cinema, 1329 Lagoon Ave. in Minneapolis, and ask Mark anything you’d like at the Q&A afterwards. You’ll never look at animals the same way again—especially humans. Tickets are going fast so get yours now and don’t miss out on seeing this historic documentary. You can watch the trailer here.

Join us for a delicious time at the second annual Twin Cities Vegan Hotdish Cook-Off on Saturday, March 22 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m at the Fuller Park Recreation Center, 48th Street & Grand Ave. S in Minneapolis. Think tater tots, green beans, pasta, and other yummy things all mixed up in a single baking dish. Original recipes from area cooks will be vying for two prize categories: Audience Favorite and Judge’s Pick with additional prizes for the runners up.

Our judges are noted cookbook author Robin Asbell, State Fair judge Susanne Mattison, and none other than the the monochromatically stylish Scott Seekins – The Minnesota Famous! Come and support ARC while tasting a variety of delicious hot dishes for only $1 per sample. Free beverages will be provided and there will be lots of great door prizes. Your best Church Lady attire is welcome, but not required.

We have a few contestant spots left and a $20 deposit will reserve your spot (you’ll get your deposit back in full at the contest). Contestants will receive a $10 gift card from ARC’s vegan boutique, Ethique Nouveau, and one of our new super secret special event tees! To register to compete, email Dallas at dallas@animalrightscoalition.com. See you there!

Thanks to everyone who organized, volunteered, baked, and purchased goodies at the Bake for Their Sake bake sale to benefit our Cuddle Coats program. The sale was a huge success and the volunteers raised over $500 for the program!

This Valentine’s Day, ARC is sharing the love by hosting Bake for Their Sake, a vegan bake sale fundraiser for the Cuddle Coats program. Mark your calendars and join us Saturday, February 8th from 1-4 p.m. to get cruelty-free versions of all of your favorite baked goodies, and maybe even find some new favorites! Bake for Their Sake will be held at Ethique Nouveau (ARC’s headquarters and vegan boutique) at 317 W 48th Street in Minneapolis. If you’d like to donate baked goods for the sale, drop off your items the hour before or at the beginning of the bake sale and please bring along the recipes to give out.

Funds are being raised to help support the Cuddle Coats program, which accepts donated furs and accessories and ships them to wildlife rehabilitation centers where they are used in the rehabilitation process of injured and orphaned animals such as raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks. The fur is especially helpful when contact with humans must be kept to a minimum, by helping to establish a nurturing and soothing environment and providing comfort and warmth for these animals when one-on-one contact is not advisable. Proceeds from the bake sale will help with the shipping of furs to wildlife rehabilitation centers and will also provide funds for new anti-fur posters.

Every year millions of animals are killed for their furs. For those who have decided they no longer want to walk around sporting dead animal skins, ARC’s Cuddle Coats program will take in those furs and give them back to those who really need them: orphaned and injured wild animals. Check out the adorable recipient of a Cuddle Coat, a baby possum growing up strong and secure at Animal Rescue League Shelter & Wildlife Center.

During the rehabilitation process, contact with humans must be kept to a minimum. Fur helps establish a nurturing and soothing environment for these animals. Think of the fur as a surrogate parent. The donated furs offer comfort, warmth, and rehabilitation to these ophaned and injured animals before their release into the wild.

Animal Ark Thrift Store is one of the local businesses that have taken a pledge not to sell furs in their stores. Instead, all furs Animal Ark receives are donated to the Cuddle Coats program. These furs are not sold for profit, but instead are sent to our 22 wildlife rehabilitation partners across the country to be put to use helping wild animals in need. Furs can also be donated at Ethique Nouveau, Everyday People Clothing Exchange, and Earth Exchange.

From the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, Inc. in Missouri “Thank you so much for sending us some Cuddle Coats! Our first animals to try them out were a litter of baby mice – and they loved them! Keep up the good work! And thanks again!”

Cookies were flying at the annual Vegan Holiday Cookie Exchange on Saturday, December 14 at Ethique Nouveau. Each person brought 4 dozen vegan cookies and then shared and swapped with others who had done the same. Check out recipes from last year’s cookie exchange and links to recipes from this year’s exchange.

It was great seeing so many members and friends at ARC’s Holiday Open House on Sunday, December 8. We enjoyed chatting with all of you about everything ARC has accomplished for animals this year and our plans for an even bigger and better 2014. Helping animals is hard work, but we have serious fun too – so enjoy this oldie but goodie “Animal Rights Coalition Rap” dreamed up by ARC volunteers and performed by Dallas, Ryan, and Aaron.

ARC volunteers gave away over 500 samples of vegan burgers, everyone’s game-favorite fare, at two University of Minnesota Gopher football home games in September . For the third year running, Gardein burgers with all the fixin’s flew off the trays as fast as we could grill them.

Between the two events, 19 ARC volunteers gave away hundreds of samples plus literature about veganism. The best part is that the game-goers we reached were not likely to have tried vegan food without the encouragement we provided; and they weren’t sorry–we heard many comments about how yummy the burgers tasted. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped with grilling, passing out samples, and answering questions about a plant-based diet.

We’re excited to announce another new avenue for our expanding outreach programs – Minneapolis Community Education has accepted ARC’s Help, I’m Going Vegan! workshop into its community education catalog. The workshop will be held in four sessions starting Monday, October 7 through Monday October 28 from 6:30-8:00pm at Southwest High School in Minneapolis. Many thanks to ARC volunteer Melissa Maaske for persevering through the application and interview process to get the workshop approved.

Workshop description: “You know you want to go vegan, but you have all these questions. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a knowledgeable and caring vegan give straight-forward answers? Join Melissa Maaske, mentor through Vegan University, for an in-depth veganism workshop. We will discuss the health, environmental, and ethical reasons to choose veganism. You will learn tips on grocery shopping, eating out, and how to talk to others about your choices. After this class, you can make empowered choices about what you eat!”

Come to a fun, family-friendly show featuring live music, vegan food, outdoor activities, and more at the Wood Lake Nature Center Amphitheater at 6710 Lake Shore Drive in Richfield from 5-8pm on Saturday, August 31. Music starts at 6. This is a fundraiser to help animals by supporting the life-saving campaigns of the Animal Rights Coalition. Donations will be accepted at entry.

Featuring music by:
Kim Lauritson
City of the Weak (acoustic)
The Sawtooth Sons
Woman of the Forest
Wizard Baby

In case of rain, we have a back-up room inside.

We’re excited to show you our brand new brochure Have You Ever Stopped to Think About Them, designed to make our message of justice for animals accessible to even more people.

A recent study by the Humane Research Council looked at several of the most commonly used pieces of animal advocacy literature from large groups and discovered that they were all written at a level only accessible to people with a literacy rate of 11th grade or higher. But according to the U.S. Department of Education, only about 15% of our population reads and comprehends at that level.

ARC set out to create a brochure that would lay out the case for animal equality in very simple terms so that more people in our communities could receive our message in a way that works for them. We were able to get the brochure’s text down to a 7th grade reading level, creating a tool that will allow our message to be more accessible to more people. Going forward, we’re hoping to translate the brochure into Spanish, Somali, and Hmong.

The Forego Foie Gras campaign rallied outside 112 Eatery in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday evening, June 22 to encourage the restaurant to take the pledge not to serve foie gras. Our Forego Foie Gras campaign is working for a Foie Gras Free Minneapolis by educating consumers about this gourmet cruelty and asking local restaurants to pledge to keep it off their menus

Foie gras is produced by plunging a feeding tube down the throats of ducks and geese. This force feeding causes a bird’s liver to swell up to 12X its normal size and leads to enormous suffering.

For more details, read our new “Face of Foie Gras” brochure