One thing I never got used to during our week-long stay in India was the unbelievable amount of stray dogs wandering around Delhi. The only way I can describe it is to think of pigeons in the United States and apply that to dogs. They are literally everywhere and looked at for the most part as pests. The response to these dogs is that they are either attacked or completely ignored. I can’t tell you how strange it is to be walking down the sidewalk and planted right in the middle is a pack of stray dogs minding their own business completely asleep. People just walk around them or step right over them and they don’t even flinch. Or you will see a dog come running around the corner with someone with a stick chasing them not too far behind. The culture of pet ownership as we know it looks to be unheard of in most of India. A handful of dogs out of the literally hundreds that we saw had collars or jackets on which made us assume that they were someone’s pets, but they were still wandering around with no owner in sight. In our entire time there, we did not see a single dog actually on a leash. For a dog lover, all of this would be charming if it wasn’t for the extreme danger that these animals face daily.

More than once we saw dogs lying fast asleep on the edge of the street with traffic flying by not more than 2 feet away. They wander in and out of cars at intersections or stop lights and have apparently learned to deal with the incomprehensible Indian rules of the road. After doing a bit of research, I came across this page on the PETA India website that explains that it is now illegal to use a vehicle to hit and injure a stray animals (dogs/cats/cows). Apparently that used to be a big problem in cities with large driving populations.

In the mid-90’s, most of India switched from a policy of extermination to a policy of sterilization in an attempt to control the population. No longer is it legal for municipalities to kill stray dogs by leaving out poisoned food, starving them, electrocuting them or burying them alive. They now seem to rely heavily on non-profits and charities to spearhead the reduction of stray dogs across the country by trap, neuter and release.

The truly sad fact is that if an animal does find itself sick or hurt, it wander around without treatment until it presumably starves and dies. There are “Please don’t feed the dogs” signs all over, but we still attempted to feed a few strays that we came across. Most of the time they wouldn’t approach us so we just dropped food and walked away hoping they would get it when we left.

After seeing the plight that these poor animals face, we realized that a few US Dollars could go pretty far towards helping dogs in India. Much further than it would here in the States. And as far as we are concerned, helping a dog nearly 8,000 miles away is just as good as helping one in our local shelter. As you may or may not know, The Vegan Collection donates 25% of the profits from every sale to one of four charities. It’s about to turn into five. We are currently researching organizations that have implemented mass sterilization programs for stray dogs in India.

We have a couple of great candidates and we hope to announce our new charity soon. Keep checking the site and the blog for more info.

With such amazing vegetarian India food options available on virtually every street, when we requested that our taxi driver take us to a McDonald’s they couldn’t understand what we were thinking. We explained how it was a completely different experience from that in the US. Due to India’s large Hindu population, McDonald’s has completely catered their menu to suit religious vegetarian and non-vegetarian customers alike. The McDonald’s that we visited was a small restaurant in one of Delhi’s biggest foreign tourist shopping areas, Connaught Place. Our friend had given us a rundown on what is and what is not vegan, and the food itself was nothing to write home about, but the policies for their Indian franchise restaurants is fascinating.

They would not let us take pictures inside the restaurant, so I had to sneak a photo of this sign next to the menu:

The “Beef and Pork Products Not Sold Here” sign must be an easy way to explain to tourists why they can’t get their Big Mac, Quarter Pounder or McRib. McDonald’s have two completely different menus, food prep stations and sets of servers for the veg and non-veg options. Even the people who work at the counter either wear red outfits for non-veg or green outfits for veg. It’s amazing that they are more concerned about cross-contamination there than most veg-friendly restaurants here in the states. The non-veg menu is loaded with chicken items like the Chicken Maharaja Mac and the Chicken McGrill, but we weren’t there for that, we were there for the vegan options.

We opted for the McAloo Tikki Burger meal, hold the “sauce” which was some kind of mayo/ketchup concoction I’m guessing.

There were a bunch of strange options on the menu if you ate dairy like the Veg Pizza McPuff, the Paneer Salsa Warp and the McCurry Pan Paneer. The two medium drinks, two sandwiches and a medium french fries ended up being 285 Indian rupee, which is about the equivalent of $6 US Dollars, which is actually pretty expensive compared to the much larger and much better Indian food meals we were used to eating.

One thing that was really nice is that anything that was completely vegetarian is denoted with a small “Veg” label on the wrapper. So unlike the McDonald’s french fries in the US which contain beef flavoring, the same french fries are veg in India. To tell you the truth, it has been over 15 years since I’ve had McDonald’s french fries, I can’t tell you if there is any noticeable difference in flavor between the two.

After eating our meals we were still a little hungry. We figured since we didn’t know when the next time we would be making it to another Indian McDonald’s, we’ll be true Americans and overeat, so I ordered a McVeggie Burger with no mayo.

When it came out it was basically the same thing as the McAloo Tikki Burger, but instead of tomatoes and onions on a patty made out of potato, onion and peas, you get lettuce on the same patty. A bit of a letdown, but I think the difference comes in the sauce or the mayo, neither of which we had.

We added a bit of ketchup (no mustard was available) and choked it down.

All in all, the meal was probably the worst one we had the entire time we visited (not counting the vegetarian meals on the flights, yuck!). The last thing to mention, and something that I didn’t catch until we were leaving, is that they ask you to deposit any unused condiments, a.k.a. ketchup packets, back into a small box. After I got to thinking about it, who knows how many times that same packet has been handled before you touch it, open it, use it, then use your hands to pick up your food. That worried me a little bit.

After we were done, we decided to go kill some time at a coffee shop around the corner. This was a pretty big deal because coffee in India means boiled water and Folgers Crystals. The fact that we were able to have coffee made from real beans after drinking Folgers sounded extremely tempting. We stopped in Cafe Coffee Day and much to our surprise, they offered an item called a “Vegan Shake.” We ordered it and it tasted like an overly sweet soy latte.

As you can see from the picture, it came with ice, so we drank it as quickly as possible (even at a “western style” restaurant you don’t know if the water is filtered or non-filtered) and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and waiting to go to the airport.

So as much as I hate supporting McDonald’s in any fashion, I can now say “been there, done that” and have visited a veg friendly Mickey D’s. Now never again.

If you stopped by our site last week you would have seen our “On Vacation” message on the main page. Technically, it was a business trip as the point of our travel was to meet with our manufacturer in Delhi.

This week we will have a series of posts about our experiences while in India including our visit to the factory that makes our products, our first time trying the fabled veg friendly Indian McDonalds, and our impression of India’s out-of-control stray dog/goat/boar/cow population. India is a fascinating country that is so drastically different than anything I could have imagined. Hopefully you will find our stories and photos interesting.

Looking for stuff to do this Valentine’s weekend? These are our picks:

Saturday, February 13th

Party/Fundraiser for Animal Cruelty Investigations: Join Jane Velez-Mitchell (of HLN’s “Issues”) and Rory Freedman (bestselling author of “Skinny Bitch”) at this swanky cocktail party to benefit Animal Cruelty Investigations. A minimum donation of $100 is suggested, which all goes to this great cause. Space is limited so you should RSVP now to info@acinvestigations.org or call 310.383.9777.

Sunday, February 14th:

Compassion Over Killing Valentines Fundraiser: If you look at the post before this one, you can get the full details. But the quick scoop is vegan food, drinks, prizes, music and karaoke all for $20 at 2 Headed Horse Gallery in Los Feliz. You can RSVP here.

For even more events happening this weekend, check out the calendar.

Looking for something to do this Valentine’s Day? Join vegans, vegetarians and activists for a fun-filled night of dancing, karaoke, eating, drinking, and more at the 2 Headed Horse Art Studio in Los Angeles this Sunday to benefit Compassion Over Killing. Advance tickets are $15 ($20 at the door) and include a drink ticket plus all the delicious vegan food you can eat. Plus there will be amazing raffle prizes from us, Vaute Couture, Rory Freedman, A Scent of Scandal, Alternative Outfitters and many more.

Here’s all the info you need:

WHERE: 2 Headed Horse Art Studio at 1770 Glendale Blvd. LA, CA 90026
WHEN: Sun., Feb 14 at 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
TICKETS: Advance tickets are $15 online, $20 at the door.
RSVP: On Facebook or info@cok.net
Buy your tickets online today at http://bit.ly/3w0CPR

The Vegan Collection is happy to announce that you can now find our belts and wallets at the newly opened Ethique Nouveau in Minneapolis! The profits from this vegan and cruelty-free boutique support the longstanding Minnesota animal advocacy non-profit Animal Rights Coalition. They are currently working on their “web presence,” but in the meantime you can visit the Animal Rights Coalition website to get their hours and read about the new store. If you find yourself in Minneapolis, you can visit the store at: 317 W. 48th St. in South Mpls.

Planning on purchasing something from The Vegan Collection for that special someone? The last day to make an order with Priority Mail and have it delivered in time for Valentines Day is Tuesday, February 9th at 4:00 PM. Express delivery is available until Thursday, February 11th at 4:00 PM and will be delivered on Saturday, February 13th. Please e-mail us if you have any delivery questions.

If you’re still looking for the perfect Valentines date, don’t miss the 1st Annual “Adopt A Valentine” pet adoption event happening Saturday, February 13th at LA Animal Services’ North Central shelter (3201 Lacy St LA 90021 – two blocks east of Figueroa off Ave 26). This special pet adoption benefit will include substantial discounts on adoption fees ($78.50 per dog and $50.50 per cat), plus an extra $25 off the first 10 adoptions of the day. Click on the image to view the flyer with all the information.