Image: Sign from World Week for Animals Demo

Images from left to right: ADAV protesters at World Week for Animals in Labs Demo, Emma at Planted Expo, Lori, Ericka and Hanna at Meowfest, ADAV and the gang from TV Outreach at World Week for Animals in Labs Demo.

We have been busy! We are 100% volunteer driven and our committed team made sure we were there at events this past year including Meowfest, Delta Animal Shelter Community Day, Vancouver Planted Expo and Vancouver Vegan Festival to name a few. All of these kinds of events represent excellent opportunities to educate the public about the realities of animal experimentation and to distribute information about actions people can take like only supporting charities that don’t research on animals or by signing petitions and sending letters.

We also joined TAVA’s World Week for Animals in Labs by organizing a demonstration and march in Vancouver on April 22, 2023 which also happened to be Earth Day. We were happy to team up with TV Outreach to once again draw public awareness to the plight of animals in labs. Our sister organization, Progressive Non-Animal Research Society (PNARS) marked the day by announcing its new report about the environmental impact of animal research. You can see the executive summary and full report by clicking here. We are very pleased to note that LUSH has pledged to provide funding to get the word out about the report and to create print copies for distribution.

Through demonstration and petition, we continue to campaign against the inclusion of animal labs in the new St. Paul’s Hospital and Health Campus which is currently under construction in Vancouver. Please visit our No Animal Labs at St. Paul’s Hospital page by clicking here for more information.

As well we have a quick list of other actions you can take on behalf of animals in labs on our “Stop Animal Research: Petitions & More” page that you can visit by clicking here . For other “take action” issues related to animals, check out our “Help Animals: Other Issues” page by clicking here. There are a number of important issues covered there that sadly involve a great deal of animal suffering.

Additionally, we’ve pressed SFU to release data on on its use of animals in labs (thank you to Ben and Ken for their invaluable assistance). We created a petition and met with MPs to urge Canada to follow the U.S. lead in ending the mandate that new drugs and biologics must be tested on animals. And, ADAV’s Sanaz will be bringing the message of cruelty-free science to secondary schools on the North Shore.

Besides telling you a bit about what we’ve been up to, we’d like to take this opportunity to give a special thank you to the supporters whose kind donations, big and small, make it possible for us to keep doing our work. We’d like to give a shout out to Jennifer and Janice for their monthly contributions, to Allan, Janice, Richard and Karl for helping to fund special projects, and to all the great vendors who have donated gifts to our fundraisers: LUSH, Nice Shoes/ TerraLuv, Vegan Supply, Eternal Abundance, Fairy Cakes, Gorilla Foods, Virtuous Pies and BrEAThe Kitchen. Also, a sincere thank you to the artists who bring our messaging alive: Crystal, Maureen, Twyla, Teresa, Maidie and Graham.

Last, but not least, we’d like to take a moment to announce the winner’s of our recent fundraising draw!

Images from left to right: Dorcas with LUSH Splash gift set prize, Dorcas drawing names of winners

Winners are: Marnie P. and Aliz T. who each won a LUSH Handmade Cosmetics “Splash” gift set, each with a value of $65. Thank you LUSH for the donations! Jonathan H. won the Vegan Supply gift card, worth $50. Thank you Vegan Supply! and Cherie W. Won the Nice Shoes/TerraLuv gift card worth $25. Thank you Nice Shoes/TerraLuv! Thanks also to all who participated in the draw. All of the funds go to our work!

And thank you so very much for you all for your support on behalf of animals. Happy New Year!