I had an amazing day on Saturday, April 4th, 2015. Pat, a rescued King pigeon (bred for meat- squab), and I attended the fourth annual Conscious Eating Conference put on by United Poultry Concerns & Animal Place. We learned so much! T.J. Tumasse of Animal Legal Defense Fund presented on what investigators find happening to farmed animals and if only a few moments of what he showed was common knowledge, people would look at their food very differently. (Farmed animals need their own Blackfish-type film to awaken consumers.) Mary Finelli of Fish Feel gave a mind-blowing  presentation about the trillions of fish being killed annually- far more and even more wastefully than any other animal. Kim Sturla made the case for why farm sanctuaries have to be educators, providing “classrooms without walls”. Karen Davis who, 25 years ago did what everybody said couldn’t be done and created United Poultry Concerns, spoke eloquently on the role of single issue campaigns. When Karen wanted to start UPC, she was told that if people couldn’t even be inspired to care about whales, they could never care about chickens but she has proved them wrong. Victoria Moran, author of Main Street Vegan and The Good Karma Diet (among other titles) gave an uplifting call to the abundance of vegan living. It was a great conference and we were privileged to be there advocating on behalf of pigeons and learning from animal rights leaders. Click on the photos to see full size.