By Kaleen Luu
The environmental impact of the meat and dairy industry has animal rights activists from the campus Cease Animal Torture Club urging students to think about their dietary choices.
The club is run by Presidents Chelsea Velez, a fourth-year international studies major, and Gil Antonio Ong, a fourth-year biology major. Velez has been vegan for over three years, and Ong for two. Both were vegetarian before committing to being vegan.
They encourage all students to come by for their meetings and events, which include potlucks, dine out nights and sanctuary trips to visit rescued farm animals from slaughterhouses.
“We do show slaughterhouse footage, but we’re aiming to show more positive footage like a cow playing fetch or a pig solving a puzzle,” Velez said. “We have artwork with comparisons of dogs and cows and really, what’s the difference? Why do we love them and eat others?”
CAT’s goal is to focus on outreach events and to promote its meetings with flyers throughout campus. The club attracts attention by giving out stickers, vegan protein bars and samples of vegan milks or makeup at tabling events.
The club also spreads its message through outreach by going to protests and pig vigils, such as offering water to pigs about to be sent to the slaughterhouse at processing plant Farmer John in Los Angeles.
“You don’t necessarily have to be vegan or vegetarian to be in the club, but we do ask that if you’re going to go to our events, that you be educated and that you’re not saying things like ‘the dairy industry is not cruel’ because it is. There’s cruelty within that industry,” Velez said.
Ong said the club focuses on being a helpful resource for beginners to clear up misconceptions about being vegan.
“The major misconception is the cost of being vegan,” Velez said. “If you’re buying things like vegan cheese, vegan fake meat, vegan ice cream, it can be expensive [but] you don’t have to go and buy all these different alternatives. Things like potatoes and rice, they’re one of the cheapest foods on the planet.”
CAT will be hosting a three-person team debate discussing the environmental and health benefits of being vegan, with six panelists on Nov. 18 in the USU Ballrooms at 4 p.m. There will be two registered dieticians to debate eating animals, two environmentalists to debate the environmental impact and animal agriculture, and a vegan activist and hunter from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. A Q&A session will follow.
“Society is so keen on keeping animals on the menu [but] I think that people are born vegan, and society tells them otherwise,” Ong said. “People are empathetic and they care about animals. Being vegan made me feel lighter. I’m not so bloated and I don’t feel so heavy after every meal.”
The next CAT meeting will be held Oct. 10 at 5 p.m., in the LA-5 plaza.
