Los Angeles based ARME (Animal Rescue Media Education) rescue homeless animals and tirelessly work to educate the public through award winning films like Behind the Mask and Skin Trade. They are holding a silent auction this month to help raise funds for their next 3 films. You can bid on some fabulous vegan items, including two of our most popular wallets which are currently going for only $10!

Go to the auction website here and enter skintrade as the auction username and password to view items up for bid.

The bidding is currently underway, and you have until July 31st at 11:00 PM PDT to enter a bid.

From the ARME website:

Proceeds from this auction will be used to save animals from death row in Southern California, as well as assist us in continuing to make award-winning documentary films that expose the horrors of the animal-abusing industries.

The granddaddy of all animal rights conferences starts tomorrow in Washington DC. We won’t be there this weekend (we will be attending the 2011 conference that is being held here in Los Angeles next year) but in our absence our friends at Cosmos Vegan Shoppe will be stocking our entire line of products at the convention. This includes a couple of new wallets which haven’t made it up on our site yet! So stop by Cosmos booth and say hi to Leigh and Ken for us. To find out more info about the weekend, including the full list of speakers, vendors and events, click here.

If you live in Los Angeles (or anywhere close by) there are two screening events that you MUST attend.

First is the Skin Trade Public Premiere and Benefit on Thursday, June 10th. 3 years in the making, Skin Trade premiered to a limited audience back in February, but now ARME and the producers are having their official public premiere at The Majestic Crest Theatre located at 1262 Westwood Boulevard. Shannon Keith, the director, will be present for a Q&A after the screening. They will also be having a silent auction at the event with  proceeds benefiting ARME – Animal Rescue Media & Education to promote this film as well as preparing funds for their next film. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here.

The following week is Bold Native premiere week. On Wednesday, June 16th, the Majestic Crest Theater will be hosting the World Premiere of the film.  With both the filmmakers and cast in attendance, the public will get the first glimpse of the story of an animal liberator wanted for domestic terrorism who emerges from the underground to coordinate a nationwide action. Tickets for the premiere are $12.50 and can be purchased here. Later that week, you can join the filmmakers and watch Bold Native under the stars at the top of the Hollywood Hills. A free screening will be held at Tree People Outdoor Amphitheater on Friday, June 18 at 8:15. You can reserve your seats by RSVPing for the event here.

If you don’t happen to be in Los Angeles, you’re still in luck. Both films have upcoming screenings around the country. To view Skin Trade’s upcoming national screenings, click here. For Bold Native’s upcoming screening schedule click here.

The WorldFest 2010 Earth Day Festival is happening this upcoming Sunday at Woodley Park in Encino, CA. WorldFest is a solar-powered celebration of music, the environment, animals and humanity, but what the people that I know really go for is the vegan food, vegan food and more vegan food. The Vegan Collection will be there selling our shoes, belts, wallets and new shirts alongside over 100 other vendors and exhibitors selling their food and wares. This is a must attend for any SoCal vegan, so if you’re there, stop by our booth and say “Hi.” Here are all the details:

WorldFest
Sunday, May 16 – 10:30 AM – 7:00 PM

WorldFest is located at the Northern end of Woodley Park in Encino, CA.
Adults are $7, Kids & Seniors are $5.
Parking is $5.
6350 Woodley Ave.
Encino, CA

The Humane Society of Louisiana has been hard at work these past couple of weeks coordinating gulf oil spill rescue groups and wildlife rehabbers. They will be taking a short break this weekend from that tireless task to put on the 2nd Annual New Orleans Veggie Fest happening May 16th. From 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM you can try restaurant food samples, participate in cooking demos, view films, attend talks from speakers like Gene Baur from Farm Sanctuary and Jane Velez-Mitchell of CNN, and win fabulous raffle prizes from companies like us! The cost is $10 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and under with the proceeds going towards events promoting the benefits of vegan and vegetarian diets during the rest of the year. It sounds like this would be a great event to drive home the connection between eating meat and the overuse of fossil fuels like oil. For more details on this weekend’s event in New Orleans, click here.

Some of the best bakers in all of Los Angeles have teamed up to support ARME (Animal Rescue Media Education) this Saturday. From 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM on May 1st, ARME will be set up in front of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society located at 4300 Melrose Ave. (one block east of Heliotrope, a few blocks west of Vermont). They will be featuring items from Babycakes, Sunpower Natural, Sprinkles, Many’s Bakery, The Blissful Chef and many more. If you’re not familiar with ARME, they are the folks behind Uncaged Films (Skin Trade, Behind The Mask) as well a rescue organization that has found homes for many unwanted, homeless animals over the past several years. Check out their Facebook Event page for even more details. We’ll see you there!

From April 15th through April 18th, Cease Animal Torture (CAT) is sponsoring the Animal Liberation Forum 2010. This completely free event is happening at California State University Long Beach and is one of the only AR conferences that I know of that is dedicated to pushing the message of abolition of animal exploitation and not settling for animal welfare. Over the course of the four days, there will be an array of speakers who will share their perspectives, tactics, strategies and experiences through panels, workshops, films and discussion. There will also be organizations, including The Vegan Collection, tabling with literature, cruelty-free merch and more!

You can visit the website here for all the details or see a list of this year’s speakers below:

• - Leo Flowers
• - Prabhat Gautam
• - Carol Glasser
• - Kali Grech
• - Denis H. Hennelly
• - Lorri Houston
• - John Johnson
• - Shannon Keith
• - Greg Kelly
• - Marti Kheel
• - Dina Kourda
• - Bob Linden
• - Anthony Marr
• - Jason Miller
• - Mardhavi Rodrigo
• - Matt Rossell
• - Moses Seenarine
• - Stewart Solomon
• - Casey Suchan
• - Peter Young

This past Sunday we headed over to visit Los Angeles’ premiere non-profit organization dedicated to saving homeless and abandoned cats and kittens, Kitten Rescue. Since the day we started The Vegan Collection, Kitten Rescue has been one of the 4 charities that we give a portion of our profit to support, yet we had never actually visited their facility. When we heard that they would be opening their doors for their Second Annual “St. Catrick’s Day” celebration, we jumped at the chance to see the inner-workings of this fantastic group.

When we got to the nondescript building in Atwater Village we were greeted by a slew of friendly volunteers, one of which was kind enough to spend about 15 minutes giving us a full tour of their facilities and some background information about the organization. Currently Kitten Rescue has 157 cats at their location with another 1,500+ being fostered by volunteers and organizations throughout Los Angeles. Of the 157 cats at their location, most are available for adoption, but a handful of older and feral cats which would generally not get adopted in the shelter system, have found a forever home at the facility. They are a completely volunteer run organization with one paid employee who manages the facility.

The thing that struck us the most was how well organized this volunteer run no-kill shelter operates. The task of keeping track of over 1,500 animals while still maintaining a safe environment for these animals is unfathomable. And the fact that Kitten Rescue does it all on a shoe-string budget is a testament to how far this organization stretches it’s donation dollars.

Even though we weren’t able to stick around for the green beer and vegan nachos, we had a fantastic time chatting with the volunteers and finally meeting some of the people we had previously only talked to via e-mail. Kitten Rescue only allows the public to come in and explore their facility once a year, but they are always looking for more volunteers to socialize the animals or foster families to care for animals waiting for their FURRever homes. You can find out all the information about volunteering for Kitten Rescue on their website here, or throw them a few bucks on their donation page here.

Photos graciously provided by Kitten Rescue volunteer Natalie N.

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