Yeah, so glad you could go! I had a great time there myself! It was a 3 hour drive down and 3 hours back, so I am pretty tired, but some highlights...
I talked at length with the Minnesota Chapter of the Sea Shephard Conservation Society. I am blown away now by the importance of the work they do.
I FINALLY got to meet in person Rachel Shippee and a few others from Vegan Outreach. I used to leaflet for them in 2013-2014, but every time they came to my city to leaflet, I was out of town in a medical emergency (my partner was having to go down to the Mayo Clinic for various complications). So I never got to leaflet with them. I always did it alone.
A friend of mine from my local Vegan Meetup group was down there helping at the Compassionate Action for Animals table. You may have met her...the red headed woman named Shawna. I did a 2013 Farm Sanctuary Walk For Farm Animals event with them in 2013 and a few people remembered me! It was good to see them there!
I also talked at length with Howling For Wolves. Both my partner and I are passionately against the wolf hunt and are all for saving these beautiful and important creatures on our planet. That organization really knows there stuff and do a wonderful job at presenting their cause.
I found a book..."The Simple Little Vegan Dog Book: Cruelty Free Recipes for Canines" for sale there and grabbed a copy. I have always wanted to learn more about how to feed a dog a plant based diet safely, or at least move in that direction. We have a 12 year old dog and she gets a little of my plant food here and there to replace her meat based dog food, but we have never attempted to change her diet to all plant based given her very sensitive digestive tract and age. I would love to be more knowledgeable in this area though.
Though I was thrilled to see the Herbivorous Butcher Shop there, this time I didn't buy anything from them. For one, the line for their food was INSANELY long lol. And 2. I have already bought food from them before and really enjoyed it. In fact, I was really overwhelmed by the crazy crowds of people all over. I nearly had a panic attack as I am not good in large crowds. I lose my appetite and my anxiety prevents me from eating so we didn't eat anything there. But I signed a TON of petitions and felt good to be a part of a collective voice against oppression, cruelty, and exploitation.
I also got some contact information to talk to someone from the Animal Rights Coalition of Minnesota regarding how to get more people involved in our local vegan Meetups up here. We have 87 member and only a half dozen every show up to events. It's been in operation for a year now and we have tried everything to get more involvement to no avail. So hopefully this contact person can help.
It was a very productive and fun day! I was a little disappointed though as I thought it would be a larger event, but it was still a good showing! We were not there that long either, maybe 1.5 hours? I was wearing a green shirt with a 2013 Farm Sanctuary Walk for Farm Animals in yellow on it. There were so many people there it was crazy!
Sorry about your sinus infection! It was nice of you to make an effort to go!
