The Vegan Collection has maintained our own Los Angeles vegan events calendar for the past year or so, but we are handing over the reigns to the people at Los Angeles Vegan Events. We will be replicating their Google calendar on our page, but if you have any events you would like added, please contact VeganEvents@gmail.com.
blogdowntown posted this article and photo gallery weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to write about it, but haven’t gotten around to it. Ed Fuentes followed Los Angeles’ Animal Sales Task Force on a recent Saturday during a sweep of Santee Alley looking for vendors selling small animals. As Ed reports, ten felony arrests were made including six with charges of animal neglect. It’s nice to see that the Animal Protection Unit for the City Attorney’s Office was there to explain to the gathered crowd why these animals are being confiscated, why people are being arrested and how these sales fall under animal abuse. You can read the full article with photos of the raid here. I’m hoping these raids on illegal pet sales will become more commonplace.
For those of you who are not familiar with “park[ing] day,” it’s an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK[ing]” spaces. LA is getting in on the action big time, but one PARK[ing] Day space is guaranteed to be vegan friendly. From 10am – 3pm, 1 block west of Laurel Canyon on Ventura Blvd in Studio City, fellow vegans will be handing out free vegan snacks and literature from PETA and Compassion Over Killing to encourage a plant-based diet to those who are unaware of the impact non-veg diets have on the planet. If you have a second, stop by this or one of the many other PARK[ing] spaces around Los Angeles or your local city. You can click on the image for all the info about the vegan PARK[ing] space, or visit the Community Walk PARK[ing] day page to find a space near you.
If you missed the 2009 Animal Rights Conference then you made a big mistake. There were booths abound filled with a wealth of knowledge and a treasure trove of cruelty free goodies. Attendees were able to visit shops and purchase items that would normally be only available through the internet. The conference also included a plethora of workshops and discussion panels. The Westin Hotel allowed dogs to attend the conference, but food vendors were not permitted to openly sell food. Vendors fortunately found a loophole that allowed samples and accepted “donations” from its patrons. For many of the exhibitors the conference could be seen as successful. Cosmos Vegan Shoppe sold out of some of its more delectable candy bar items early; while our own booth sold out of men’s medium and XL sized belts. The ballroom in which the exhibitors resided was described by one attendee as, “loud and aggressive,” wishing that the venue was outdoors. Despite this setback the event was both well organized and attended and we met a bunch of great people! Check out the pics below:
This Saturday night is Vegan Drinks happening at Desert Rose Restaurant in Los Feliz. From 7:00 PM until who knows when, join nearly 100 vegans drinking and enjoying pizza from Cruzer Pizza which is located next door to the restaurant. Desert Rose has also promised to have a few special vegan items on the menu for that evening. Although I’m all about the drinking and less about the eating, I’m sure I’ll be trying a slice or two. I have not been to this bar/restaurant, but apparently they have a large patio outdoors so it will be a perfect evening to enjoy the 80 degree sunny Saturday. See you there?
Location:
Desert Rose Restaurant
1700 Hillhurst Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323.666.1166
The League of Humane Voters came out with their endorsements for candidates in tomorrow’s City of Los Angeles election. I have been too busy the past couple of weeks to do any homework on the issues, so I am using their list as a good starting point for research on tomorrow’s issues. As a reminder, the turnout for local elections is generally small, so the power of your vote will be greatly increased. Here’s their list:
City Attorney
Carmen Trutanich
You can see his responses to the League of Humane Voters’ questionnaire here.
Los Angeles City Council District 5
Paul Koretz
Paul has authored quite a few pro-animal resolutions including:
You can see more information about Paul’s accomplishments on his website here.
Last Sunday we drove out to the west-side to attend the 1st (annual?) Los Angeles Veggie Pride Parade. From all accounts, it was hugely successful drawing an estimated 500 people. The reaction from most passerbys was positive, but there were the requisite “Eat a steak!” comments being yelled by passing motorists. Check out the pictures we took from the event below.
Tomorrow is the City of Los Angeles’ Primary Election and like a lot of other people, I’ve been too distracted to really research any of the candidates. Fortunately the California Chapter of the League of Humane Voters just came out with their election endorsements. Seeing that I haven’t done any research on any of the candidates, I’ll be cramming for the election this evening. Their list seems as good a place as any to start. As a reminder, the turnout for this local election is likely to be small, so the power of your vote will be greatly increased. Here’s their list:
Mayor:
David Hernandez: David is a mature, dedicated activist who has fought injustice on all levels of society. He has championed the plight of animals in this city for the last eight years, speaking out for Billy, against pet breeding and the lack of the Villaraigosa’s administration support for shelter animals. He is a man of his word, not a man of empty promises.
City Attorney:
Michael Amerian: An intelligent,progressive career public attorney who we believe would release the resources for and encourage animal cruelty prosecutions. Noel Weiss is a good runner up alternative. Carmen Trutanich seems to have a progressive attitude towards the prosecution of animal cruelty but has some clients in the past who we would not want to influence him in this office.
Controller:
The League of Humane Voters has not made any endorsement in this race. This office has little impact on the lives of animals in the city although we don’t like the idea of rewarding Wendy Greuel when she has displayed such a callous attitude towards the animals in the city council.
Los Angeles Community College District
Member of the Board of Trustees, Seat No. 6
Robert Nakahiro: Mr. Nakahiro has a passionate commitment to the need for humane education in the schools.
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District Elections: Whether these candidates are on your ballot will depend upon your district. You will only be allowed to vote for one at the most. If these names are not on your ballot we did not endorse in your district.
We wish we could endorse in every race but frankly we have been disappointed by the behavior of many of our incumbent city council members. We have listed those who we believe deserve our support.
City Council District #5
Paul Koretz: Twenty years of passing laws to protect animals on the city and state level should not be ignored. Going to the polls to vote for Paul if you are in district 5 is reason enough to make the effort to vote.
Please vote for Paul if you life in these zip codes: 90024, 90025,90034, 90035, 90036, 90046, 90047, 90048, 90049, 90064, 90067, 90069, 90077
City Council District #7
Richard Alarcon: Authored the recent Los Angeles Spay-Neuter ordinance which passed in 2008.
City Council District #9
Jan Perry: Jan has been supportive of many of our issues. She deserves to be re-elected.
City Council District #15
Chris Salabaj: Chris is a new face on the political scene. He will be compassionate relief after four years of the indifferent Janice Hahn.
Please vote for Chris if you live in these zip codes. 90002; 90044; 90059;
90061; 90247; 90248; 90501; 90710; 90717; 90731; 90732; 90744
Vegan Collection Blog contributor and man about town, Prabhat Gautam, and his good friend Rebecca Smith are organizing a veg networking event. If you are interested in meeting veg friends for dating purposes or business purposes, you can fill out the questionnaire below and submit it to prabhat_gautam@hotmail.com. He tells me that even if you’re not looking for a date it will still be a great event to meet other veg*ns in Los Angeles. So bring your favorite non-alcoholic vegan snack (apparently Vodka doesn’t count as a “snack”) and meet your new business partner or life partner. Questionnaire is after the jump. (more…)
When we talk to people about their dog park experiences that they usually have nothing but good things to say about it except that there’s always “that one person/couple” that brings their dogs that are complete assholes. We always joke that we never see that couple. Apparently it’s always us. We’ve since given up on going to dog parks (which is what our trainer said four years ago anyway) and instead just take them running on their leashes. But I really do love dog parks. Just going to check them out and watch the interaction between all the animals is a great way to kill a few hours. The dog park in Silverlake is fun since there are always a bunch of dogs there, but it easily turns into a dirty/muddy mess. The Arroyo Seco dog park is much nicer, but often you will go there and there won’t be any other dogs. The addition of another dog park in the area would be great. Angelenic, the downtown LA blog, is looking for opinions on the new park going in Pershing Square. They have a couple of different scenarios, so if you’re a dog owner and live anywhere near downtown, put in your two cents here.
