Speak Up for Animals in 15 Minutes or Less!

Here are some easy actions you can take to sprinkle seeds of compassion everywhere you go—exposing everyone in your wake to the idea that other sentient beings aren’t here for us to exploit. Let’s get to it.

Help Animals in the Community

• Pop into ice cream shops and ask whether they have any vegan options, even if you know they don’t (and especially if you know they don’t), to show that there’s a demand for them.
• Put stickers with important messages on your belongings—your laptop, luggage, refrigerator, or water bottle. Imagine if someone were to go vegan because of your well-placed sticker. It happens.

• Ask for an alternative assignment if your child is instructed to dissect animals at school.
• Have leaflets handy so that you don’t miss opportunities to inform people about ways they can avoid harming animals.

• Strike up conversations with other shoppers who are browsing the aisles at the grocery store. Mention how any recipe can be veganized: Margarine can be used instead of butter, soy or almond milk can be substituted for cow’s milk, and egg replacer can be used in baked goods.
• Be a little sneaky. Put vegan foods next to nonvegan products at grocery stores to make shoppers aware that they have options.

• Post PETA literature (which you can get for free by e-mailing [email protected]) on bulletin boards at coffee shops, libraries, and other spots.
• Look up the Little Free Libraries near you and place vegan starter kits inside them. Put animal rights books in the local library or your apartment complex, school, or place of worship.

• Tell your hairdresser or barber about some of your favorite vegan beauty products that aren’t tested on animals.
• Ask local restaurants and grocery stores to carry more vegan options, and offer some suggestions.
• Wear clothing and accessories with animal rights messages. It’s one of the easiest ways to take action for animals.

• Leave animal rights literature at your doctor’s office, in hotels, inside books before you return them to the library, and at other locations.
• Take advantage of captive audiences. Your rideshare driver can’t avoid hearing you explain that animal agriculture is destroying the planet.
• Put a bumper sticker that advocates for animals on your car. Imagine how many drivers and passengers will see the message.

Speak Up for Animals At Work

• Display animal rights literature, such as PETA’s stickers or vegan starter kits, on your desk for people to see and take.
• Organize a shelter drive. Get some folks together to donate old blankets and new dog and cat toys to a local open-admission animal shelter—and make sure they understand the difference between open-admission shelters and turn-away shelters (aka “no-kill” shelters).

• Ask your office manager to use supplies that aren’t tested on animals, such as products from Method, Seventh Generation, and Dr. Bronner’s, which are widely available.
• Keep a coffee mug or water bottle bearing an animal rights message on your desk. Decorate the bulletin board in your break room with such messages.
• Whip up some yummy vegan dishes to take to your office potluck, happy hour, or company picnic. Talk to your HR team about always including vegan options at company events, and offer to help.

Speak Up for Animals At Gatherings and Parties

• On birthdays, give animal-friendly presents—such as cruelty-free makeup, a vegan leather bag, or a wool-free scarf—and make vegan cupcakes. Mention that no animals were harmed for your gifts or treats.
• Going to a Thanksgiving dinner? Bring vegan food. Guests will likely be amazed that it’s so delicious and want to learn more about it.

• At potlucks, label the dish you contributed with a sign that says “vegan” so everyone can see that food doesn’t need to contain animals’ flesh or secretions in order to be tasty.
• Going to a cookout? Take extra vegan burgers and nondairy cheese for grilling so that nonvegan folks can try them.

• Post videos on your social media pages of friends and family members enjoying the vegan food you provided so that your not-yet-vegan followers can see their positive reactions.
• Invite your friends to go out for vegan food with you. Or help them save money by having them over for dinner.
• Suggest some informative documentaries for your friends and family members who aren’t vegan to watch on Netflix, such as Cowspiracy, Seaspiracy, The Game Changers, and What the Health.
• Be your healthy, happy, positive self. Everyone around you will see that eating vegan means living your best life.

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Spreading the message and planting seeds of compassion for everyone in little ways at every opportunity can really add up. And you won’t be the only one doing this—you’ll be one more person doing it. If we’re all speaking out against speciesism, the changes we can make are limitless.