Looking for fun stuff to do this weekend? These are our picks:

Saturday, August 29th:

First Annual Summer’s End Vegan Shindig: Be part of the biggest vegan party of the summer! 5 LA vegan MeetUp groups (Los Angeles Vegan Drinks, Orange County Vegan Drinks, Avec Mes Amis, Orange County People for Animals and United Animal Advocates of LA) are joining up to bring you THE vegan event of the summer. The price is $25 at the door ($45 for couples) and includes all-you-can-eat dishes featuring Daiya vegan cheese, vegan wine and aguas frescas. The event is being held at Mama’s Hot Tamales but as of right now, the event is “sold out”. You can contact one of the MeetUp organizers to see if you can be put on a waiting list. This is an event you won’t want to miss.

Sunday, August 30th:

Pawpsicle Party befitting the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation:Bring your leashed dog to enjoy Pawpsicles while helping out the WorldHeart Foundation. Tickets are $20 and it includes a raffle ticket, wine and hors d’oeuvres. I’m not sure of the “vegan-ness” of the food/drink at this event, but it’s still a great cause which you can read about here. Find out more info about this event by calling 310-284-8777.

For more events check out the calendar.

One of my favorite animal rights blogs (Change.org’s Animal Rights Blog) tipped me off to this awesome group, The Coalition to Unchain Dogs. In addition to advocating for the passing of laws that disallow or severely restrict the chaining of dogs, the group also build fences for chained dogs in the Raleigh/Durham area. To date, they have put up fences for over 200 previously chained dogs. Some of the stories are heartbreaking, dogs that have been chained up for over 6 years, dogs that were misplaced by Hurricane Katrina, dogs that have never had the opportunity to run or play. The group has it down to such a science that they can put up a fence in only 3 hours. They also give complete step-by-step instructions on their website with photos (and video!) of how to build a fence along with pointers on what locations work best and what materials are needed. Venture over to their site and read some of the more than 50 happy dog testimonials and if you feel moved (like I did), throw a little money their way via PayPal.

Visit The Coalition to Unchain Dogs

As most people hopefully know by now, all dogs and cats 4 months or older must now be spay or neutered unless the animal has gotten special exemption. The penalty is a misdemeanor and the fine for not doing this can be up to $500. This Saturday, August 29th, you can bring in your dogs into the East Valley shelter and have this procedure done for free. You must make an appointment (call 1-888-349-7388) and all vaccines are included with the surgery. The one catch is that your family household income must not exceed $31,700. Click here for more information.

Looking for fun stuff to do this weekend? These are our picks:

Saturday, August 22nd:

Beach Bonfire at Dockweiler Beach: Join Veggie Snow and Sun Bugs and Farm Sanctuary for an afternoon/evening of hanging out on the beach, grilling veggie dogs and  doing whatever else you do at the beach (I grew up in South Dakota, so I’m still trying to figure out what goes on “at the beach” besides trying desperately not to get sand in your shoes/towel/car/food). The party’s happening from 4 – 10. Look for the Farm Sancutary table. You can get all the details here.

Sunday, August 23rd:

Viva La Greens Cooking Class: Knife Techniques: If I didn’t already have plans on Sunday I would definitely be here. One of the major drawback of cooking extravagant meals is the prep-time. In this one hour class, Christy will show you how to speed up the cooking process by using  correct knife techniques. I’m guessing that pretty much anyone outside of a professional chef could benefit from this class. The class is from 11-Noon and it’s $25 in downtown Los Angeles. For more info check out Viva La Green’s class schedule here.

Katya Lidsky has come up with an innovative way to get people to adopt from the local shelters, she offers her service as a shelter dog personal shopper. Shelter Shopper Inc. does an initial consultation and then searches every shelter and rescue group in order to find the perfect match. They do a personality assessment of both the animal and the potential owner and arrange a meet-and-greet to make sure you get the right pet for your lifestyle. This is a great way to get people who aren’t willing to go to a shelter to still adopt a rescue animal. You can find more information about Shelter Shopper Inc. at their website here.

Here’s a great offer for anyone who volunteers for any 501c3 organization. Sage Hospitality is giving away a free night or 50% off at one of their hotels for anyone who volunteers 8 hours or more between July 1 and Dec. 20. Their selection of hotels is a little limited, but if you are already putting in the volunteer hours, there’s a slim chance you may be visiting one of these locations and can use the discount. Here’s a list of the hotels by state and here’s the page with all the details.

Leading up to spcaLA Night with the Dodgers is a 3 day eBay auction featuring all kinds of Dodger/celebrity merchandise. Up for bid are baseballs autographed by Betty White and Alyssa Milano; Dodgers game tickets; a stadium tour; Dodgers memorabilia, baseballs autographed by Dodgers players  James Loney and Casey Blake and more. 100% of the proceeds of these auction items support spcaLA programs and services so if you’re a baseball fan (personally, I can’t stand baseball), this is a great opportunity to pick up some Dodgers items while giving back to the animals. The auction begins August 17th at noon and runs for 3 days. You can view the items on spcaLA’s eBay page when they will be listed here.

Right now is probably not the best time to post about it seeing that the Human Society is on everyone’s shit-lists right now, but……..one thing that I was sent recently was a link to Humane Society University. Humane Society University offers B.S. degrees and graduate certificates in Animal Studies, Animal Policy and Advocacy, and Humane Leadership. I know absolutely NOTHING about this program, but it’s certainly intriguing. They are  licensed under the Degree Granting Institution Regulations of the District of Columbia so it sounds legit. Classes are $900 for a 3 credit course which is pretty reasonable. Has anyone ever heard of it or taken a class? It could be a great resource for people who are looking to help animals as part of their educational experience without having to go through programs in the agriculture department. Some text from their recruiting materials:

HSU offers non-credit professional instruction on diverse topics — everything from mastering animal sheltering basics and leadership to combating compassion fatigue and illegal animal
fighting. Professional development courses are offered as in-person workshops throughout the country, and as user-friendly online courses that can fit any schedule.

Their academic program begins on October 24.

I have no idea if the current overcrowding at LA Animal Services shelters can be directly linked to the recent fee increase by LAAS, but I’m sure it’s not helping. As an attempt to alleviate some of the overcrowding, LAAS is dropping their adoption fees by 50% as well as giving you a free microchip from August 19th – 23rd.  So if you know anyone who’s in the market for a gently used cat, dog or rabbit, let them know they can pick one up next week at bargain basement prices. You can click here to view all the details.

We met the people behind Humane Consumer at the 2009 AR National Conference last month. Their postcard had been sitting in my “to-do pile” as a reminder to check out the site since then. I had some time this past weekend to start going through said pile and finally visited their site and it’s great! What Humane Consumer does that I haven’t seen anywhere else is keep an up-to-date list of cruelty-free products that stick to extremely stringent standards. Companies that make their list must be vegan, all items sold by the company can’t be tested on animals, and companies can’t be a subsidiary of a company that test on animals or makes non-vegan items. We’re happy to announce that The Vegan Collection was just listed on their site last week! You can check out their site here which is now my go-to list of guaranteed cruelty free companies.