Omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans attended SCCAA's recent screening of the award-winning documentary Vegucated, which follows the story of three meat-loving New Yorkers who agree to try a vegan diet for six weeks. The movie presents the many reasons to choose a vegan diet, from animal suffering to human health to environmental impacts.

Brian Flegel, who is one of the three people featured in the movie, spoke after the screening. He reported that he is now 100 percent vegan. Once his eyes had been opened about the issues with consuming animal products, he found it hard to go back to his old diet: "You can't forget truth."

One person asked Brian for advice about how to be a vegan when you're out in public. Brian replied that even little things can make a difference–if you authentically enjoy your vegan restaurant meal, your friends will notice without you saying a word. He encouraged everyone to do what they can to reduce their consumption of animal products, even if they aren't able to go vegan right away. Brian summarized: "It's all about minimizing your impact–it's a process, not perfection."

On January 27, 2013, SCCAA hosted a talk by Paul Shapiro, vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). An enthusiastic audience listened as Paul described how farmed animal issues are becoming more mainstream, with Oprah, the Dalai Lama, and Pope Benedict all speaking up for farmed animals. Paul emphasized the importance of working to help farmed animals, since so many of them suffer and die unnecessarily–over 10 billion land animals in the U.S. every year. This far exceeds the combined numbers of animals in shelters, experimental labs, circuses, rodeos, and fur farms.

Paul showed some statistics on meat consumption in the U.S. From WWII to 2007, meat consumption increased steadily, but since 2007 it has decreased by more than 12 percent. He also discussed how, since 2002, no fewer than nine states have passed bans on abusive farming practices.

Paul emphasized the value of progress over purity. Campaigns like Meatless Mondays allow everyone to participate in reducing the suffering of animals, even people who are not yet ready to commit to a vegan diet. The percentage of vegetarians in the U.S. has been holding steady, but the number of so-called flexitarians (people who choose vegetarian for more than half of their meals) is on the rise. Paul summarized with the message that "We are winning. We are making progress in changing the course of history."

SCCAA's third annual holiday vegan bake sale was a success, raising $1080 for SCCAA's educational outreach, as well as for two other local non-profits, the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center in Morgan Hill and Peninsula Catworks in Palo Alto. Twenty-three bakers produced this year's vegan goodies, including red velvet cupcakes, Mexican wedding cookies, butterfinger cupcakes, cookie bouquets, snickerdoodles, and many more delicious donuts, cakes, cookies, and pies.

Hungry holiday shoppers enjoyed picking out treats to take home, and more than a few items were consumed on the spot. Each customer also received a Compassionate Choices leaflet explaining how animals suffer to produce the milk, butter, cream, and eggs used in non-vegan baked goods. Kids had fun at the gingerbread animal decorating station where they could customize their own cookies.

All recipes from the bake sale are available in the 2012 Holiday Vegan Bake Sale cookbook. The cookbook also explains how to veganize your own favorite cookie and cake recipes by replacing the animal ingredients with plant-based equivalents. Additional vegan recipes (from the 2011 bake sale) are available here.

Fur Free Friday is a nationwide event held the day after Thanksgiving to educate people about the cruel treatment of animals killed for their fur. SCCAA organized this year’s events at Santana Row in San Jose and at Neiman Marcus in the Stanford Shopping Center. SCCAA members went into stores at Santana Row to identify the stores that are still selling fur. Neiman Marcus continues to sell fur at all their stores nationwide.

Twenty-seven people showed up to hold signs or hand out leaflets. Reactions from passersby ranged from “You rock!” and “Bless you for doing this.” to “Now I can finally afford fur and you’re telling me not to buy it?”

People were shocked to hear that fur-trimmed items from overseas that are labeled as faux fur are often real fur. Manufacturers have realized that many Americans do not want to buy real fur, so they simply mislabel their products. SCCAA members distributed leaflets to shoppers that explained about the mislabeling of fur and the cruel conditions that animals raised for their fur must endure.

On October 20, 2012, the SCCAA Presentation Series continued with a talk by Erik Marcus, the author of "Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, and Money" and other books on vegetarianism and animal agribusiness. Erik discussed his own journey as an animal activist and offered ideas on how to best use social media to reach friends and acquaintances at various levels of awareness about animal issues. Erik recommended that Facebook users limit their posts about the suffering of animals to not more than 10 percent of their total Facebook posts. Erik explained that your Facebook friends are more likely to hear the message if they see you as a well-rounded person with similar interests to theirs, not a one-track fanatic trying to force unwanted advice on them.

The evening concluded with a vegan dessert bar, courtesy of the volunteer baking efforts of several SCCAA members.

The latest offering in SCCAA's Presentation Series was a talk by Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, the largest farmed animal rescue and protection organization in the U.S. Gene is the author of the book "Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food."

Gene inspired the audience with his theories and hopes for the animal protection movement. One woman who was leaving the event venue right before Gene's talk was so intrigued that she decided to stay for the entire presentation.