Farm Sanctuary Action Alert

Farm Sanctuary cordially invites you and yours to our good old-fashioned Country Hoe Down—a rootin’ tootin’ weekend of animal-friendly activities. Join us and learn about current farm animal issues and campaigns, visit the sanctuary critters, spend time with like-minded individuals, enjoy delicious vegan cuisine, and find out how you can help end the suffering of farm animals!

Gene Baur, Farm Sanctuary’s co-founder and president, has conducted hundreds of visits to farms, stockyards and slaughterhouses to document conditions, and his pictures and videotape, exposing factory farming cruelty, have been aired nationally and internationally, educating millions. He has testified in court and before local, state and federal legislative bodies, and has initiated groundbreaking legal enforcement and legislative action to raise awareness and prevent factory farming abuses. He played a significant role in passing the first U.S. laws to prohibit cruel farming systems—including the Florida ban on gestation crates, the Arizona ban on veal and gestation crates, and the California and Chicago bans on foie gras. His efforts have been covered by leading news organizations, including the New York Times, The Larry King Show, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, National Public Radio, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN. His book, entitled Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food, was published by Touchstone (a division of Simon & Schuster) in March 2008.

Karen Dawn worked as a news researcher and writer for various Australian publications and on ABC's nightly news magazine, "The 7:30 Report." Drawing on her knowledge of the media, she founded DawnWatch in 1999, a listserv for important animal-related news alerts that encourages animal lovers to get actively involved with the media. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, New York's Newsday and the UK Guardian. She is a contributor to Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals and to In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave. Her new book, Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals, will be released this spring.

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, long-time vegan and animal activist, founded Compassionate Cooks to empower people to make informed food choices and to debunk the myths about veganism and animal rights. She does this through vegan cooking classes, articles and essays, lectures and workshops, her popular "Food for Thought" podcast and blog, a first-of-its-kind cooking DVD, and her new cookbook, The Joy of Vegan Baking: Compassionate Cooks' Traditional Treats & Sinful Sweets. Colleen has appeared on the Food Network and is a columnist for VegNews Magazine and a contributor to KQED radio.

Mark Hawthorne is the author of Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism. He gave up meat after an encounter with one of India’s many cows in 1992, then went vegan a decade later upon visiting Animal Place, an education center and sanctuary for farmed animals near his home in northern California. Beginning in 2004, Mark served as a contributing writer for Satya magazine and he is a frequent contributor to VegNews. His writing has also appeared in Vegan Voice, Herbivore, Hinduism Today, Utne.com and newspapers across the U.S. Mark shares his vegetable crisper with five rabbits rescued by SaveABunny, which works with San Francisco Bay Area animal shelters to find loving homes for rabbits.

Julie Janovsky is Farm Sanctuary's Campaigns Director and leads the organization's nationwide campaigns including eliminating intensive confinement systems for pigs, calves and chickens, ending the torturous production of foie gras, stopping the suffering downed animals and exposing the factory farming dairy industry. She has drafted legislation and model bills, and lobbied for the passage of hundreds of bills across the country to help protect animals. She continues to work toward the inclusion of animal concerns in federal and state policy as well as building grassroots campaigns to engage animal advocates and other members of society to take action for animals.

The conference costs $35 per person and includes the Saturday night dinner and barn dance. Free, rustic camping is available on the farm and hotel accommodations are only a short drive from the shelter.

For further information or to register by phone, please call 607-583-2225 ext. 221. To register online, please visit www.farmsanctuary.org. Click here for pictures of our 2007 event.