It’s the season for giving and there’s no better way to spread a little Christmas cheer than to gift a little extra support for all the wonderful organisations out there working tirelessly for the animals. We asked around the Vegan FTA team to see who they would like to have a super special Christmas this year. This is what they said!
GARETH: If I could ask jolly ol’ St Nick to visit anyone this year it would have to be HUHA Animal Rescue in New Zealand. HUHA (Helping You Help Animals) is a charitable trust dedicated to teaching empathy to the community and providing shelter for those less fortunate animals that struggle to survive in today’s disposable culture. The amazing team at this sanctuary have done and continue to do incredible work for the animals on so many fronts. This year alone they sent a team over to Australia to assist in the bush fires and have recently taken on the massive project of rehoming 180 cows after a sanctuary was no longer able to care for them. HUHA are on the top of my “nice” list for this year!
To give a gift to HUHA, visit https://huha.org.nz/get-involved/donate/
JACKIE: Such a hard decision, there are so many worthy causes! Can I pick two? My first one is also based in New Zealand and that is NZAVS, the NZ Anti-Vivisection Society. Before we interviewed Tara Jackson for our ‘Activist’ series, I had no idea of the extent of animal testing and cruelty in our own country. Tara and the NZAVS team fight so hard and work tirelessly to expose some of the horrific procedures being carried out on more species of innocent animals than most of us even imagine. They really need and deserve our support. The other organisation I would have to mention is Sea Shepherd. We watched the documentary ‘Watson’ recently and it really blew me away, the magnitude of their work and the decades of dedication. They’re seriously badass! I like that we can all help them in some way, from volunteering to be a crew member to making more of a concerted effort to help clean up our local beaches. Their work is so important in ensuring a future for the next generation and beyond.
To give a gift to the New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society: https://www.nzavs.org.nz/one-off-donation
To learn how you can help Sea Shepherd: https://huha.org.nz/get-involved/donate/
SARAH: This Christmas I would love to highlight the work being done by the Animal Save Movement. They fight against animal oppression by creating opportunities for people to bear witness to the suffering of animals as they are transferred to the slaughterhouse. The movement focuses on not looking away from this suffering, but instead chooses to come close in order to help end it. Animal Save started with the Toronto Pig Save, but there are now over 900 chapters in over 70 countries. The images and videos from the Animal Save Movement activists are some of the most powerful and haunting that I’ve ever seen and really capture the unfortunate realities for so many in this world.
There are many ways you can help support the Animal Save movement:
Donate: https://thesavemovement.org/donate/
Find a chapter near you: https://thesavemovement.org/list-of-save-groups/
Help start your own chapter: https://thesavemovement.org/as-find-a-chapter/
MIKEY: When I was living in Portland, one of the animal sanctuaries that I got to go visit was Out To Pasture Animal Sanctuary. Every year they hold an open house and vegan barbecue attended by hundreds of people from across the state. This year, the wildfires in Oregon came within 1000 feet of their sanctuary, and Out To Pasture had to work tirelessly to find safe places for all of their 150 animals until the fires passed. Some even had to be rehomed multiple times due to the evacuation zones changing as the fires spread. Luckily none of their animals were harmed, and they all made it back safely to the sanctuary. They deserve their Christmas to be way better than the rest of 2020.
To learn about the different ways you can help Out To Pasture, check out https://www.outtopasturesanctuary.org/donate-how-to-help
