COMPASSIONATE CAMPUS the College Guide to Animal Advocacy BEING the BEST YOU CAN BE
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COMPASSIONATE CAMPUS the college guide to animal advocacy BEING THE BEST YOU CAN BE In order to present your message effectively, you should pay attention to how you present yourself. Here are some tips on being the best advocate for animals you can be: 1. ABK (Always Be Kind). Be warm, friendly, and considerate. You’re not trying to prove other people wrong; you’re trying to inspire them to join you. You’ll be most successful if they like you — and, if they know that you like them. 2. Hearing about the concrete benefits of a change makes people more likely to adopt it, so let your peers know that each of them can spare 31 animals every year by ditching meat. At the same time, validate gradual changes. Most people change their diets incrementally. Cutting out chicken and fish is the best place to start because doing so will spare the largest number of animals from misery. 3. Try to dress and speak like the majority of your peers on campus. Research covered in the book Change Of Heart indicates that the more similar we are to our audience, the more likely we are to persuade them to change. That means more lives saved. Wearing a school T-shirt or sweatshirt may be one way to do this. YOU CAN END HER MISERY 4. Tell stories about individual farm animals and what life is like for them every day on factory farms. (Visit farmsanctuary.org/learn/factoryfarming for story ideas.) Emotional appeals are more persuasive than statistics or philosophy. Over the course of your time at college, you have the power to save the lives and end the misery of literally thousands of individuals. 5. Remember to show people how to find or make delicious vegan food. Many people are willing to make changes if they know how easy it can be. We’re talking, of course, about helping animals. Rosa (shown above) spent her entire life packed into a crate so small that she couldn’t even turn around. Every time you choose 6. When you’re deciding how to spend your limited amount of time, money, and energy, a meat-free meal, you’re helping animals like her. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, you’re always think about what will help the greatest number of animals. helping more than 31 farm animals (and many more fish) each year. Want to know how you can have the biggest impact of all? By inspiring others to make the same change. Persuading just one of your classmates to stop eating meat will spare 31 individuals each year from a life of misery. Even convincing your peers to eat more meat-free meals will spare many animals. There are few other issues – even other animal issues – where we have the ability to do so much good. And guess what: It’s easy! There are thousands of students around you. Some of them will decide to change their habits if they learn about the cruelties of factory farming and as vegetarian food becomes more available. All you need to do is put the information in front of them. That’s what this guide is all about. We know you’re busy. And, we also know that you care. This guide can help you use your time, even if it’s limited, to do the greatest amount of good you can and to reduce the greatest amount of suffering. If you’re associated with a student group that you can work with, great! If not, no problem — all of the tried-and-true programs on the following pages are things you can do by yourself. As Anne Frank said, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” VEGETARIAN STARTER GUIDE STANDS On every campus, there are many students who have considered becoming vegetarian but don’t really know how to do it. Want to make it easier for them and give them the push they need to get started? Consider setting up stands that offer free vegetarian starter guides to anyone who wants them. Most Student Union or Campus Center buildings already have stands like these that offer newspapers and magazines. Get permission from your school administration to put up a stand of your own. Just tell them that you’d like to set up a guide about healthy vegetarian eating so that students who become vegetarian are well-informed. In addition to the Student Union, other good spots for these stands are dining halls, libraries, and gyms. Be sure to pick spots that will catch people’s attention. It’s not only the students who pick up guides who will think about choosing more meat-free meals but also people who simply see the information as they pass by it every day. Once you have permission, all you need to do is to set up the stands and re-stock them with guides about once a month. The stands are cheap; you can get them on sites such as www.Display2Go.com for $30. If you’re not part of a group with a budget, VegFund might be willing to help buy the stands for you. Apply at www.VegFund.org. The vegetarian starter guides are free; just email us at [email protected]. It takes only an hour or two to get permission and order the stands and about 10 minutes to set them up — then you’re all set! Over the course of the semester, everyone on campus will see the stands and hundreds will pick up a guide and move closer to a cruelty-free diet! why i do it Chris Guinn, Emerson College “We put a vegetarian starter guide stand up in the Student Center, and it works great! It’s right in the front lobby, so people will see it every time they’re leaving; it’s constantly reminding people about the idea of eating vegetarian. We give out probably 300 vegetarian starter guides every semester, and it’s no work for us at all — all we have to do is re-stock it once or twice.” CAMPUS VEG DINING GUIDE In addition to the vegetarian starter guide stands, there’s another simple way to show students on your campus how easy it is to eat meat-free meals: create a campus veg dining guide. Research covered in Change Of Heart indicates that the biggest predictor of whether or not people will make a change is whether they think it’s easy and convenient for them to do so. A campus veg dining guide shows how easy veg eating can be by listing all the options available in the dining halls, campus stores, area restaurants, and grocery stores. Be sure to include all the “regular” vegan options — things like pasta, fries, salads, rice and beans, vegetable stir-fry, and granola bars that typically are already part of people’s diets. A simple, photocopied booklet will do the trick, and we even have a spiffy Photoshop template we’re happy to send you — just email [email protected]. Many schools will give student groups free photocopies. If you want to make your booklet extra nice, you can get several thousand full-color, glossy copies for a few hundred bucks at sites like GotPrint.net. Once you’ve printed the campus veg dining guides, the key is getting them into people’s hands. If you’ve set up vegetarian starter kit stands, you can simply put the guides next to the kits. You can also insert them into any leaflets or vegetarian starter guides you distribute, pass them out to freshmen, leave them in mailboxes at the dorms, and offer them at outreach tables. If your school has a weekly email blast, post them online and include a weekly link. Just like that, you’ve made becoming or staying vegetarian much easier — and more delicious. why i do it Emily Glassman, Drexel University “When I was a freshman, I was worried about finding good vegan and vegetarian options on campus. I know a lot of my meat-eating classmates have the same concerns; they don’t know that there are so many delicious vegan things to eat here. That’s why vegetarian dining guides are really popular — and not just among vegetarians!” VEGAN OPTIONS IN THE DINING HALLS The more delicious vegan options are available, the easier it’ll be for people to cut out meat. Some campus dining halls do a great job of providing vegan options. Others still have room to grow. If your school falls into the latter category, you can meet with your campus dining director and encourage him or her to add more (or better) vegan options. Sometimes, all it takes is a few friendly visits, emails, and suggestions to get them excited about trying something new. Be warm and cheerful, and pitch this as a positive change that a broad range of students, not just vegans and vegetarians, will appreciate. Ask for crowd-pleasing vegan dishes like veggie burgers and bean burritos — things that everyone will enjoy, even people who don’t know the dishes are vegan. Dairy-free macaroni and cheese may be mouthwatering to vegans, but it could be a turn-off for others. Does your school already have tons of great vegan options? Consider meeting with your dining director to encourage participation in the Meatless Monday campaign. Hundreds of college dining halls already take part in the program. These dining services don’t go entirely meatless on Mondays, but they do offer additional vegan options and put up signs touting the benefits of meat-free eating.