peta2 Vs. the Florida College Republicans? November 17, 2009

Posted by Ryan at November 17, 2009 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBack

Put your Awesome Hat on—it's peta2 College Campaign update time!

For starters, our Most Vegetarian-Friendly Colleges contest is really heating up, with less than one week left to vote! This past week saw the massive upset of the little school that could—Oberlin College—overtaking the University of Illinois. Was it Oberlin's seitan pepper steak and vegan barbecue tofu pizza that helped push them over the top? Mayhaps. Will it take them all the way to number one? Possi-be.

Further south, the storm at the University of Florida (UF) continues to brew. As you may recall, peta2 recently hosted an event called "Meet Your Meat" at UF, which was well-attended and got lots of people talking. Unfortunately, it looks like the UF chapter of the College Republicans took the wrong lesson from our talk, because shortly afterwards they decided to host a "People Eating Tasty Animals" barbecue on campus.

Now here at peta2, we don't think cruelty to animals is a partisan topic, but we're also never one to pass up an opportunity to discuss the issues. Indeed, we responded in the student newspaper challenging the club to a debate about whether animals should have rights. Word has it that the group is taking us up on our offer, so stay tuned for the event info on that this spring!

Finally, out west, Adrianne (check out her new staff bio!) brought our provocative Liberation exhibit to the campus of Arizona State University (yup—that same ASU.) She worked with the student group there to educate thousands of Sun Devils about why animal rights is the most important social justice issue of our time.





Well, that's it from us! Stay tuned for next week, when we take California, and turn it upside-down ...

Victory! Oakton Community College Cuts Out Cruelty November 6, 2009

Posted by Ryan at November 6, 2009 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) | TrackBack

When PETA was contacted by a compassionate student at Oakton Community College nine months ago and they told us horror stories about students in anatomy and physiology classes cutting open live rats and mudpuppies (no relation to sea kittens), we jumped into action. We reminded the administration that using live animals is both cruel and ineffective for teaching, especially when so many scientific non-animal alternatives are widely available.

Well, our e-mails and petitions have paid off, because this week OCC confirmed that they would stop the use of ALL live animals in the classroom! As a result of OCC's decision, countless animals, like the happy character you see below, will be spared a lifetime of misery and a needless death under a student's scalpel.

shiachat / CC

Of course, not all schools are as progressive as OCC. Some colleges are still stuck in the stone age (*cough* ASU *cough*)—despite pleas from students to join the 21st century. Don't they know—biology is supposed to be the study of life, not death?

ASU Students Rally Against Dissection! October 12, 2009

Posted by Ryan at October 12, 2009 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 3 ) | TrackBack

When Kirby Mauro found out that professors at her school were encouraging students to cut holes in rabbits' chests, inject them with various drugs, and then kill them, she was horrified. Thankfully, as one of the leaders of STAAR (Students Taking Action for Animal Rights) on campus, she was in a position to do something about it.

She and her other group members started gathering petition signatures, encouraging the school to replace the cruel experiments with scientific non-animal alternatives, which are widely available.

Last week, she even confronted the University president about the issue during an open forum, asking him why he's allowing his school's reputation to be dragged down by refusing to join the 21st century.

Well, Kirby's efforts haven't gone unnoticed. In today's issue of The State Press—the student newspaper at ASU—she's on the front page!

Click on the image for the full article.

Pretty awesome, right?

If you want to help Kirby and her group succeed, make sure to sign the petition against ASU here, and then leave your words of encouragement below.

Here, I'll start: "Kirby, you ROCK!"

Your turn.

A Bloody "Meat is Murder" Tabling Event at ASU! April 5, 2009

Posted by Ryan at April 5, 2009 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBack

Written by Kirby Mauro, a member of the Animal Welfare Association at Arizona State University

Meatout 2009 at Arizona State University was a great success! The Animal Welfare Association chose to promote veganism by holding a demonstration to show that meat is murder, and flesh is flesh!

We had a table full of great literature and handed out delicious samples of vegan food catered by Green Vegetarian Restaurant (in order to get the heavenly food they had to pledge to try vegetarianism for at least a day, of course!)



We got great responses from both students and faculty! Most people were genuinely interested in what we were doing and why. After seeing the success with this type of event, we hope to hold many more similar events in the future!

Gettin' Our Learn On In AZ! December 11, 2008

Posted by Marta at December 11, 2008 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 5 ) | TrackBack

This week we switched things up a bit and hit two campuses in Arizona: Arizona State University and University of Arizona. We met up with their students groups who are doing amazing things to help them get their campuses to veganize their cafeterias. Seriously though what could be more perfect? If you've learned anything about me in these blogs it's that I have a passionate love affair with vegan food.

We talked to thousands of students at ASU who agree that everyone has the right to more vegetarian and vegan options! Who doesn't want more food options? And thanks to Shannon, Tyler, and Yin, the students at ASU are on their way to a more veg friendly campus!

Need some help getting your campus more veg friendly? Get on it.

In Tucson we got together with Ashley, a former peta2 intern. While there we got to go to an amazing veg restaurant called Lovin' Spoonfuls. We had Chickn' Caesar Salad, "BLTs", potato salad, and homemade veggie burgers. It was phenomenal!




And of course I have to give a shout out to one of my all time favorite places, Green, in Phoenix, AZ, which always supplies us with the most amazing veg food including pumpkin tsoynami. And in case you haven't gotten the memo, a pumpkin tsoynami is soy ice cream blended with a piece of pumpkin pie. I kid you not my friends; they exist. It's almost like seeing a unicorn.


We met with the student group STAAR and they brought us cactus jerky! Only in AZ, but it was dang tasty!


I want to give it up for American University who was named the most vegetarian-friendly campus in the US. They serve delectable dishes like vegan Korean barbecue and spicy seitan in miso broth with noodles.

Just for kicks, has anyone had any awesome veg food this week? Maybe some recipes to share?

That's all for now.

Keep eating that veg goodness.

Paige