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Outstanding Activist!
Gabe
Quash is a dedicated friend to farm animals. Learning about the cruel
treatment of animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses led him to
become vegan five years ago. Then, after attending several Farm Sanctuary
events and volunteering at our California Shelter, he decided to do even
more. Inspired by the stories of the rescued animals living at Farm Sanctuary,
Gabe became a powerful and driven activist.
Gabe recognizes the many opportunities we each have to save animals by promoting vegetarianism in our daily lives, and he finds creative ways to take advantage of these opportunities. He delivers Farm Sanctuary's Veg for Life guides and other brochures on vegetarianism to restaurants, cafés, grocery stores, community centers, and libraries in San Francisco. He passes out leaflets on vegetarianism at Bay Area college campuses through Vegan Outreach's, Adopt-a-Campus program, focusing on a demographic that tends to be open-minded and sympathetic to the veg message. In the past two years, Gabe estimates he has distributed over 50,000 leaflets in all. He has also given presentations to students at middle schools, high schools, and colleges about the cruelty of factory farming and the benefits of vegetarianism, chaired the committee organizing Veggie Fest 2004, and has served on the board of the San Francisco Vegetarian Society since January of 2004.
Regarding video footage of the cruel treatment of animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses as one of the most compelling and effective tools activists have at their disposal, Gabe devotes the bulk of his time to getting such footage aired as widely as possible. In fact, Gabe taught himself video production to do just that. Then he developed two public-access shows that air each week in San Francisco: VegVideo (www.vegvideo.org) and Undercover TV. These shows are compilations of footage taken from factory-farming investigations, including Farm Sanctuary's, Egg-ribusiness, Life Behind Bars, The Making of a Turkey, and The Down Side of Livestock Marketing. Each week, Gabe gets emails from appreciative and deeply moved viewers who report that they had eaten meat their whole lives without really knowing how it was produced, and that, thanks to the show, they plan to become vegetarian. Many of these viewers request more information, and he sends them free videos, recipes, and brochures to help them make the transition to vegetarianism and to educate others.
To maximize
the number of people he can reach, Gabe began sending copies of the shows
to activists around the country who then sign up to have public-access
shows in their own communities. Fortunately, most cities have a public-access
station. Signing up for a public-access show is either free or extremely
cheap (depending on the city), providing activists with an incredible
opportunity to reach large numbers of people for little or no cost. By
taking just a few short moments to drop videos off at a local TV station,
one activist can enable thousands of people sitting at home channel-surfing
to see for the first time the cruel way that animals raised for food are
treated. Thanks to Gabe's hard work and dedication, thousands upon thousands
already have.
Together, we ARE making a difference. If you would like to find out more about volunteering your time to educate others about factory farming and vegetarianism, please contact us at activist@farmsanctuary.org, or call 607-583-2225 ext. 229. Click here to find out what YOU can do to help!