Calendar of Events

This conference is focused on issues concerning all fur-bearing animals, particularly the exploitation and cruelty of fur farms, wool and leather production, “harvesting” of wildlife (hunting, trapping, penning, etc). It will also explore other areas of animal exploitation including vivisection, puppy mills, animals in entertainment, horse slaughter, animals for food.

Attention will be given to individuals and groups dedicated to the care of and advocating for fur-bearing animals; farmed, domestic, or wild. Also of interest are issues relating to the environment, which directly affects all living beings on our planet, our air, our food and water, which are seriously compromised by chemicals and pollution caused by animal exploiting industries like factory farms.

This exciting conference offers a new view and approach to animal rights advocacy and leadership, as it is also designed for grassroots activists and organizations, namely:

• to provide a forum for those who rarely have an opportunity to speak to large audiences about the work they do;

• to create a platform for grassroots activists that focuses on: “Reviving the Animal Rights Movement: Effective Grass Roots Activism.” A New View and Approach to Animal Rights Advocacy and Leadership.

AFS Conference Highlights Include:
• Over 20 outstanding national and international speakers, leaders in the field of animal rights

• Opportunities to meet and network with people of like-mind during and after the conference

• Ground-breaking animal rights films, some never before seen by the public

• Opportunities to chat with animal rights authors, artists, filmmakers.

• Provocative and informative presentations and panels on fur bearing animals, and many other animal rights issues: animals killed for food and clothing; “disposable” pets, hunting for “sport”, lobbying for animals, knowing your legal rights and more.

• Vegan Banquet and Reception with surprise guests, entertainment and silent auction

• Vegan breakfast buffet, lunches, reception and banquet included in full registration VIEW REGISTRATION

Resistance Ecology is about movement building. It is about cultivating an ecology of resistance that can adapt to the circumstances of domination. For us, this work begins with scrutinizing the state of the animal liberation and radical ecology movements of North America by addressing previous shortcomings and providing remedies.

The Student Animal Liberation Coalition is pleased to announce the first annual Resistance Ecology Conference in Portland, Oregon, May 31st to June 2nd 2013, at Portland State University (PSU). This conference is a cooperative effort between the Student Animal Liberation Coalition (PSU), the Jericho Movement and a new movement organization: Resistance Ecology.

The conference advocates for a movement of resistance that is multi-layered, unified, diverse and intersectional. Previously, the organizers of this conference have helped to organize the Let Live and Law and Disorder Conferences in Portland, Oregon as well as the Portland Anarchist Bookfair. There will be speakers, panels, and workshops occurring all three days.

Resistance Ecology is about movement building. It is about cultivating an ecology of resistance that can adapt to the circumstances of domination. For us, this work begins with scrutinizing the state of the animal liberation and radical ecology movements of North America by addressing previous shortcomings and providing remedies. The most novel way that we can achieve this is by creating a movement-wide discourse that is accessible to everyone involved.

Our mission is to compel others to evaluate the systematic exploitation of other species and ecological communities, and to inspire personal transformation, engagement and activism through educational and participatory events. We exist to keep the discourse of animal and ecological liberation thriving on our campus, with the intent of promoting the confrontation and abolition of these exploitations as they manifest in our lives and community.

We work to network and organize with other campus and off-campus organizations, beyond the boundaries of animal rights or environmentalism, in order to create the most functional, resilient and ever-evolving liberation movement. Liberation, for animals and for the earth, cannot be thought of as isolated from other revolutionary struggles as the structural causes of racism, sexism, and speciesism are interrelated.

We strive to create an open dialogue where members and the community can communicate with one another to achieve the goals that we want to see.

It is also our mission to interject issues of animal and ecological exploitation into discourses where they have been historically absent.

The 12th Annual North American Conference for Critical Animal Studies is being held at Minneapolis Community and Technical College from June 20-22, 2013.

About 350-400 national and international scholars, activists, and scholar-activists generally attend this conference each year. This conference merges academic and activist insight, with presentations from scholar-activists and grassroots organizers alike.

Theme: Breaking the Silence on Global and Local Intersections of Ethnicity, Spirituality, and Nonhuman Animals

As the poor become poorer, more prisons are constructed, and the global south struggles with exploitation, disease, hunger, and mass displacement, social justice activists are becoming more intolerant of global racism and discrimination. In kind, the theme of this year’s annual North American Conference for Critical Animal Studies is the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, animals, and spirituality. Some of the foundational questions that the conference is interested in discussing include: Can activists compare struggles of racism to nonhuman animal suffering? What is the intersectional history of ethnicity and animals? Do you have to be anti-racist to be an animal advocate? How has religion aided in the marginalization of people of color and nonhuman animals? How has religion aided in the liberation of people of color and nonhuman animals? How, if at all, do animal advocates challenge colonization, imperialism, and racism? What are the theoretical and scientific similarities between racism and speciesism? How have different ethnic and spiritual groups addressed animal advocacy?

About ICAS

Critical animal studies is a field that promotes total liberation and explores the ways in which oppression intersects amongst human animals, nonhuman animals, and the environment. This year’s special theme is Breaking the Silence on Global and Local Intersections of Ethnicity, Spirituality, and Nonhuman Animals.

The Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS) is a fully volunteer non-profit organization that is dedicated to the liberation of human and nonhuman animals, as well as to the end of environmental destruction. We are also an intersectional organization interested in coalition building and exposing of the interconnectedness of all oppressions.

Saturday, June 22nd – 8:00 am – 4:00 pm

8:00–9:00 – Registration and Vegan Continental Breakfast

9:00–9:15 – Welcome

9:15–10:30 – Jonathan Balcombe, Animal behavior expert and author of four books, including Pleasurable Kingdom.

10:30-10:45 – Break

10:45–noon – Michael Budkie, co-founder and Executive Director, SAEN (Stop Animal Exploitation Now).

noon–1:30 – Vegan Lunch, Networking

1:30–4:00 – Harold Brown, former beef farmer and founder of Farm Kind. He is also a subject of the documentary film Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home. The documentary will be shown and discussed by Farmer Brown.

5:00–7:00 – Guests are invited to attend an informal dinner at Jazzy Veggie – 15% off entrees for conference attendees.

Sunday, June 23rd – 8:00 am – noon

8:00–9:00 – Vegan Continental Breakfast

9:00–noon – Roundtable Discussion lead by Scott Harris, with Jonathan Balcombe, Michael Budkie, Harold Brown and Jill Fritz.

Please attend and learn what we can do in Michigan, our communities and in our lives to better the lives of all animals.

The Symposium of Animal Liberation is a conference intended to unite, inspire, and motivate activists and anyone new to the animal rights movement or interested in learning more about it. This is the very first Symposium and it will consist of workshops addressing different animal abuse and exploitation industries, effective forms of activism, vegan and activist lifestyles, and more! You’ll hear presentations from experienced activists, network and meet other people who share your views, and have the opportunity to visit the exhibit hall.

The idea for the Symposium stemmed from the notion of advancing the positive, powerful effects FARM’s Animal Rights National Conference produces. Individuals are motivated to get active, provided with knowledge, form friendships, and those who do not yet follow a compassionate lifestyle are inspired to take the leap. The majority of animal rights conferences and veg-fests, however, are usually on either the East coast or the West coast. So why not have one farther inland to spread the inspiration to impel change to those who might not otherwise be able to take part in such a powerful experience? Anyone is enthusiastically welcomed — encouraged — to attend: the Symposium is not limited to Arizona residents.

Speakers
Joe Miele, Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting; Karen Davis, United Poultry Concerns; Morgan J. Dunbar, Animal Allies NY, Farm Kind

Workshops
• Desensitization & Indoctrination Within the Academic Industrial Complex: How Vivisectors are Made…and Broken
• Staffing Tables and Leafleting for Animal Rights
• Moving Beyond the Rhetoric of Apology and Speciesism
• “Varmint”/Small Game Hunting in the Southwest

Film Screenings
Vegucated

The Animal Rights National Conference is the premiere annual event for the U.S. animal rights movement. It is also the world’s largest and longest-running animal rights gathering, hailing back to 1981. By serving as a platform for training, skill-sharing, philisophical discussion, and networking, it provides the best annual forum to legitimize the animal rights movement as a social justice struggle. It is the only conference open to all points of view on achieving animal liberation.

AR2013′s four-day program will feature over 70 presenters from more than 60 organizations representing virtually all sectors of our movement.

These presenters appear in seven Plenary Sessions, which bring all attendees together, and 75 daytime workshops, which are configured along three concurrent tracks: Issues, Organizing, Remedies. On select days, the program also includes Rap Sessions, Campaign Reports, and Videos.

In each time slot, you choose the session that best fits your needs and interests:

The Issues track covers various types of animal abuses and the underlying issues (best for newcomers).
The Organizing track suggests improvements in personal and organizational effectiveness.
The Remedies track addresses campaign strategies and outreach to various constituencies.
Rap Sessions engage participants in debates about controversial issues.
Campaign Reports report on recent achievements in preventing various types of animal abuse.
Videos are shown on Friday and Saturday.
Networking Receptions, every evening, offer free snacks and a chance to meet fellow attendees.
The Awards Banquet, on Saturday evening, features award presentations and a keynote address. Exhibits, open between 10am – 6pm, showcase movement merchandise, educational materials, and delicious vegan treats.

Speakers too numerous to list. Click here for the presenters.

Vegetarian Summerfest is the 39th annual conference of the North American Vegetarian Society. It is set for July 3 – 7 at the Conference Center at Pitt-Johnstown, on the picturesque campus of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, PA. The campus is a 650-acre mountaintop wildlife preserve with 40 acres of hiking trails.

The conference features experts in the fields of health, nutrition, animal rights, the environment, exercise and related lifestyle areas, plus talented chefs. Click here for the speakers list.

How do you build a No Kill community? How do you get animal control, the health department and other government agencies to embrace it? How do you include feral cats in your community’s lifesaving protection?

And what about those big black dogs, shy cats and other “compromised” animals with impediments to adoption – can good homes be found for them too?

Come to the conference that has been called “a prerequisite for rescue groups and organizations that are serious about changing their communities to No Kill.”

You’ll get practical answers to end the killing of pets in your community including finding homes for dogs, cats, rabbits and other animals most shelters currently consider unadoptable. Not in ten years, not in five years, but now – because Animals Deserve Our Protection Today!

Drawing over 800 people from 44 states and 10 nations, last year’s No Kill Conference was the sold out, must attend event of the year. And we’re doing it again!

In 2012, over one new community per week achieved a save rate of at least 90% and as high as 99%. The No Kill revolution is ON THE MARCH. Join us as we celebrate that achievement and teach you how to do the same.

Life-Changing Summer Camp for Youth Making a Difference!

YEA Camp is a unique and inspiring leadership summer camp for youth 12-17 who care about community service, activism and social justice. A week-long sleep-away program in a beautiful camp location, YEA is designed to be a fun and transformative experience that builds life-long friendships between youth with similar interests. Our program also provides a meaningful opportunity for campers to learn more about some of the issues facing our planet and to get inspired and empowered to take action on those issues.

For more information, visit our website: www.yeacamp.org

When: July & August 2013, See website for session dates
Where: OR, CA and MA
Contact: info@yeacamp.org or 503-347-0223
Watch a two minute video about our program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ4T15gx_UU

We welcome all animal rights activists and all people who care about animals, the environment, and would like to learn more about animal rights in both theory and practice.

What is the Goal of the Conference?
The organizers of the conference are active in the animal rights movement in Luxembourg and other countries in Europe and have participated at various others conferences in Europe and the United States and also organized the international conferences in 2011 and 2012. The goal of the International Animal Rights Conference 2013 is to provide a truly international platform for people active in the animal rights movement and those interested in learning more about animal rights. The conference should function as a networking platform for animal rights activists, but should also present current animal rights views. One main aspect is also the practical animal rights work. Therefore we have decided to provide/organize the following:
• presentations
• workshops
• discussions
• panel discussions
• campaign reports
• stalls and exhibits
• animal rights concerts
• animal rights protests

Why Luxembourg?
We have been searching for a while for an appropriate location for the second international animal rights conference. Since we did not want to organize just another regional animal rights conference where mostly participants from close by areas would attend, we needed a truly international location which provides that basis for bringing animal rights advocates from various countries together. We believe that Luxembourg is such a location, since this small country in the heart of Europe does hot have a large animal rights community itself and since this multilingual region is very international by itself.

Click here for the Speakers List (which include Steve Best, Chris DeRose, Anthony Marr, Kim Stallwood, others).

Join Farm Sanctuary this fall for our annual Farm Animal Care Conference, which will be held on September 14 and 15 at our New York Shelter in Watkins Glen. This weekend workshop offers an in-depth look into what it takes to start and operate a farm animal sanctuary.

Our interactive seminars will provide participants with information about animal care, day-to-day operation of a nonprofit sanctuary, program administration, educational outreach, and fundraising, while also offering hands-on experience with the animal residents at our shelter. Members from our senior staff are excited to share insight from more than 25 years of experience as the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization. Farm Sanctuary is uniquely qualified to offer expert training to participants; all will leave with a greater understanding of what is needed to rescue and provide lifelong care for farm animals in a sanctuary setting.

The ticket cost for Farm Sanctuary’s Farm Animal Care Conference is $175 per person, and registration is open to adults 18 or older. The registration fee covers all workshop activities and materials and a vegan breakfast and lunch on both days. Accommodations during this conference will not be provided; however, participants are welcome to camp on sanctuary grounds.

Registration is limited to ensure each attendee gets the most out of this experience, so be sure to register today to reserve your spot!

Educating for a Just, Peaceful & Sustainable Future is a groundbreaking opportunity to discover your role in comprehensive humane education — and lead global change. If you are a teacher, educational administrator, changemaker, policymaker, humane educator and/or concerned citizen, please join us Saturday, Sept. 21, for an exciting and transformative day.

You will gain new skills to communicate and teach others about the most important issues of our time, meet and network with people in your field, explore the purpose of education, and witness extraordinary examples of relevant education for our time.

The conference features keynotes from Jane Goodall, Arun Gandhi, and Zoe Weil, hands-on humane education workshops and an International Day of Peace parade.

Presented by Humane Education Advocates Reaching Teachers (HEART), the Institute for Humane Education (IHE) and Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, this conference features a dynamic program of speakers including Jane Goodall, DBE, UN Messenger of Peace and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute; Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute; Zoe Weil, president of the Institute for Humane Education; and many other acclaimed speakers.

The conference also includes applied humane education workshops and a parade in honor of the U.N. International Day of Peace, when the United Nations calls upon all nations and people to cease hostilities for 24 hours and to offer education and public awareness about issues related to peacemaking. The theme for this year’s observance is “Education for Peace.” Our humane education conference will offer information, tools and motivation to people wishing to help build a peaceful world for all people and all species through education.

The conference will be hosted by New York University’s Animal Studies Initiative in the NYU Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life. The conference welcomes educators, changemakers, students and concerned citizens from across the United States and abroad. Early general registration is $75 through Aug. 1, 2013, and $95 thereafter. Student registration is $25 through Aug. 1, 2013, and $35 thereafter. If the cost prevents a potential participant from registering, an adjusted rate may be considered on a sliding scale. Please use the Contact Us tab to submit a request.

Effective action against vivisection. The Free the Animals Conference will empower and energize activists across the U.S. to attack the animal experimentation issue head-on and make concrete changes for the tens of millions of animals who are imprisoned in laboratories.

Registration includes:

• Admittance to all conference programs Friday-Sunday
• Three full days of training, motivation, and tactics
• Private screening of Project Nim
• Saturday night social (light vegan fare)
• Conference materials (schedule, etc.)
• Major demonstration at the UCLA campus

Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN) was founded in 1996 to force an end to the abuse of animals in laboratories. Our first major event was a news conference that revealed the suffering endured by dogs, rabbits, and primates in 9 laboratories across the United States.

Documents obtained by SAEN had revealed severe abuses within the laboratories of Michigan State University, University of Southern California, University of Washington, Stolle Research and Development, University of South Florida, Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center (associated with Emory University), University of Florida, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Toledo. The USDA fined several of these laboratories, and abusive primate experiments within the laboratories of the University of Toledo were terminated subsequent to the SAEN news conference.

Since our inception, SAEN staff and the tireless volunteers who support our campaigns on the local level have allowed us to make a real difference for the animals. With the help of grassroots activists, SAEN has ended pound seizure (the sale of former pets from animal shelters to labs) in Nashville (TN), and we have also ended abusive experiments on primates in San Diego (CA).

Our investigations have revealed abuses within laboratories from Boston to California and from Florida to Washington. Facilities that torture animals in Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, and North Carolina have been exposed. SAEN has been able to bring the truth about animal experimentation to the public through dozens of newspapers, magazines, and television & radio stations. Literally millions of people have seen the results of SAEN investigations. But Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! is probably the best kept secret within the animal rights movement.

In 2001 SAEN filed the largest Official Complaint in history with the United States Department of Agriculture. Our complaint uncovered abuses in nationally known laboratories like UCLA, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Yale, Harvard, The Salk Institute, MIT, and dozens of other laboratories.

In April of 2002, SAEN released the results of an investigation into the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the bankrolling of U.S. animal experimentation. The SAEN report asked for a General Accounting Office audit of the NIH to examine the issues of duplication and redundancy. Media coverage of the SAEN report reached over one million people.

In June of 2002, SAEN again filed a milestone complaint with the USDA revealing that Harvard and Yale had lied to the USDA about the number of primates experimented on in university laboratories.

In our brief history SAEN has made a concrete difference for the animals, and we will continue to fight for their freedom until all the laboratory cages are empty.

About Michael Budkie
Michael Budkie, A.H.T., is the co-founder and Executive Director of Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN), that works exclusively on the animal experimentation issue by successfully terminating research projects, forcing the USDA to take legal action against laboratories, and coordinating release of animals into sanctuaries. After witnessing the atrocities of animal experimentation during his education, he successfully ended a head injury experiment on cats at the University of Cincinnati that launched his career leading to positions with several national organizations before he co-founded SAEN in the mid-1990s. He has been published and he travels extensively, appearing on TV and radio programs to expose the truth about animal experimentation.

A conference on “Personhood Beyond the Human” will be held at Yale University, December 6-8, 2013. The event will focus on personhood for nonhuman animals, including great apes, cetaceans, and elephants, and will explore the evolving notions of personhood by analyzing them through the frameworks of neuroscience, behavioral science, philosophy, ethics, and law.

The conference will be co-sponsored by the Nonhuman Rights Project and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies in collaboration with the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics.

Special consideration will be given to discussions of nonhuman animal personhood, both in terms of understanding the history, science, and philosophy behind personhood, and ways to protect animal interests through the establishment of legal precedents and by increasing public awareness.

By the close of the conference, attendees will have gained an enhanced understanding of the neurological, cognitive, and behavioral underpinnings of personhood and those traits required for such consideration; personhood theory; the history of personhood consideration and status (both in terms of philosophical and legal conceptions); and the legal hurdles and requirements for granting personhood status outside of the human species.

The Nonhuman Rights Project will be presenting our research from the past five years including research on the varying legal causes of action that the Nonhuman Rights Project will use to argue legal personhood for specific nonhuman animals.

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

Nonhuman Rights Project

Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics

Yale Animal Ethics Group