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Tampa Bay Veg Fest 2024 is Cancelled due to Hurricanes Helene & Milton impacts

Since 2010, Florida Voices for Animals has planned and hosted Veg Fest to benefit the entire Tampa Bay area.  It is one of FVA's primary missions to spread the good word of Veganism to the public in a fun, innovative, enjoyable event in which families and knowledge-seekers can embrace.    The main benefit of Veganism is the myriad of health benefits that it provides: from reversing diabetes (type 2), to lowering cholesterol, to reducing strokes and heart attacks.  The speakers at Veg Fest are very knowledgeable in their fields.  We have Pay-Per-View where we pay $1 to a person to watch a 4-minute video.  There are free vegan food sample tents.  There are cooking and raw food demonstrations, live music, activity play tents for the kids, vegan food vendors, animal rescues with animals to be adopted, and vendors with many one-of-a-kind items.  This is a great compassionate event held at Cotanchobee Ft Brooke Park in downtown Tampa on the 1st Saturday in November  so it's worth coming out to enjoy the day with us.

ThanksVegan Potluck

Since 2005, Florida Voices for Animals has provided a compassionate alternative to the mass killing of turkeys on Thanksgiving Day.  We invite the entire Tampa Bay area to celebrate the event with like-minded people.  It is typically held at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Temple Terrace where we've had 350 people attend one year.  All the dishes have to be vegan or raw-vegan and enough to feed approx 8 people and there is a nominal fee.  If you don't want to bring a dish, you can pay a higher fee.  FVA provides refreshments like coffee, tea, water.   FVA also provides vegan alternatives like Field Roast, Tofurky, Mashed Potatoes and desserts (to die for!).  Don't let your taste buds miss this wonderful event!

Ringling Circus Protests

Ringling comes to Tampa the first week in January.  Just like in any city that Ringling holds its events, an animal rights group like FVA will have protests to educate the public about this type of animal abuse.   Elephants are beaten and tortured with electric prods and bullhooks into perform stupid human tricks so that they can make money.  Bullhooks are considered deadly weapons and have been been banned from progressive cities like Los Angeles.  This needs to be done in every city worldwide!

In March 2015, Ringling announced that it will phase out its elephant acts by 2018.  Many people ask the question: Why not just do it NOW?   See http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/05/us/ap-us-ringling-bros-circus-elephants.html?_r=0   Note well that as long as Ringling or any other circus has ANY wild animal acts, all animal rights groups will continue the protests at all of their venues.

Ringling Circus Protests

Ringling comes to Tampa the first week in January.  Just like in any city that Ringling holds its events, an animal rights group like FVA will have protests to educate the public about this type of animal abuse.   Elephants are beaten and tortured with electric prods and bullhooks into perform stupid human tricks so that they can make money.  Bullhooks are considered deadly weapons and have been been banned from progressive cities like Los Angeles.  This needs to be done in every city worldwide!

In March 2015, Ringling announced that it will phase out its elephant acts by 2018.  Many people ask the question: Why not just do it NOW?   See http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/05/us/ap-us-ringling-bros-circus-elephants.html?_r=0   Note well that as long as Ringling or any other circus has ANY wild animal acts, all animal rights groups will continue the protests at all of their venues.

Fur-Free-Friday Protests

Fur is totally cruel and unnecessary!  The animals need their fur to live in and to survive, we don't need it.  Only rich, selfish uncaring individuals will want to wear the skin of another animal, regardless of the cost.  Animals caught in leg-hold traps either suffer long periods of time before they die or are forced to chew off their own limbs to escape, only to die later in agony.    Many domestic animals are also caught in these traps.   Animals raised on fur farms are anally electrocuted , clubbed to death or have their heads crushed between two boards in order to not damage the fur.    FVA protests occur on Black Friday, the day after Thansgiving, which is considered the busiest shopping day of the year.

Puppy-Mill Protests

FVA holds demonstrations against stores that get their puppies from puppy-mills.  These poor animals are born and spend most of their short lives in filthy cages without their mothers, devoid of human contact and affection, devoid of proper veterinary health care, devoid of doggy social contact.    They are then sold to pet stores who then sell them to unsuspecting customers.   The customers in turn get bonded with the puppy and typically, when the health problems and the massive vet bills arrive, there is no turning back.  The customers end up paying thousands of dollars to try to help save the animal's life.  The store owners can claim ignorance and remove themselves from liability.  FVA highly encourages anyone wanting a puppy to please adopt from your local animal shelter instead of supporting these puppy mills.

Anti-Vivisection Protests

FVA holds demonstrations at the University of South Florida medical clinic since they perform unnecessary experiments to torture, maim and kill animals to justify their grant research.  Most colleges and universities all do the same thing.  There is no national database which can ensure that a particular experiment has not been done before and even so, by just performing the same experiment with just one minor factor like temperature can make it a "new" experiment.  Dogs have been stolen and sold to animal providers who in turn sell them to the colleges.  Feral cats have also been prime targets.   Note that these animals are totally different from humans and whatever data they acquire cannot be extrapolated to make it work.  Thalidomide was tested on pregnant mice and was approved for use on pregnant women to handle nausea and morning sickness.  Shortly after its release, 5000 to 7000 infants were born with deformed limbs and of those, only 40% survived.  Monkeys and chimps suffer the most since they are most like us.  After the animal experimentation, they move onto the human clinical trials.  FVA's stance to to eliminate the use of animals entirely and just stick with human clinical trials or human cell research.  The animals should not need to suffer and die so that the universities can get rich from the grants.  Drug companies and lawyers can claim protection because they "tested their products on animals."

FVA encourages all students to opt for a computer-based alternative to performing vivisection on frogs, animal or insect in the classroom.    

FVA Tabling Events

FVA holds tabling events and leafletting all around the Tampa Bay area.  We've been at the Florida State Fair, Circus McGirkus, Tampa Bay Earth Day, Central Florida Earth Day, Central Florida Veg Fests,  Florida Home Show, Animal Coalition of Tampa's Stride For Strays, Humane Society's Bark In The Park.

SeaWorld Protests

FVA joins forces with Animal Rights Foundation of Florida to protest against SeaWorld.  The revelation of the Blackfish documentary exposed SeaWorld's dirtiest secrets to the public such that they had problems booking entertainment acts and attendance at both Busch Gardens and SeaWorld have dropped drastically.

Feel free to join us when we carpool to Orlando to participate.  The orcas, especially Tillikum, will appreciate it.

Greyhound Protests

 

FVA joins forces with Grey2K to protest against Greyhound Racing Tracks.  Greyhounds are injured and killed in training to pursue the mechanical rabbit.  Only the fast one will be kept and the slow ones are either abandoned or sent off to the killed at another state such that the dogs cannot be traced back to a particular owner.  You bet - they die!

Justice for Tank

 

GoFundMe for Tank.   3-month old puppy named Tank was the beloved companion animal of Byron Shrewsberry and Melissa Richburg and their 5 children in Crystal River, Citrus County.  Tank was found skinned alive and tortured to death in their own back yard on Sunday July 5, 2015. Please help us raise the money needed to catch this criminal. FVA has already pledged $500. Any amount you can add will help. We must spread the word far and wide that this gofundme page exists so that we can raise the funds needed to motivate someone to turn in Tank's killer.

Any information can be reported anonymously to the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office at (352) 795-4241, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS,
or to FVA at 727-656-8368. www.floridavoicesforanimals.org  


http://tbo.com/news/breaking-news/group-offers-reward-in-killing-of-crystal-river-puppy-20150707/

FVA has joined this coalition of organizations & businesses in August 2020, focused on stopping each of the three toll roads plans in its tracks. We leverage our collective power to take a hard line against the proposed tollways w/in the M-CORES program to stop these roads to ruin.

Horse Racing Billboard Feb 2022

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LOCATION IS CORNER OF EAST HILLSBOROUGH AVE. AND SOUTH RACE TRACK ROAD, Tampa

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FVA activists stand outside Tampa Bay Downs with protest signs creating awareness of the dark and hidden face of abuse and the cruelty of the racehorse industry.  2,000 racehorses are killed every year.  Death at the track is, always has been, and always will be an inevitable part of racing. The typical horse does not reach full maturity - bones not done growing, plates not done fusing - until around six years old. Typically raced at two years.  Extreme confinement: most active racehorses are kept isolated in small stalls 23 hours a day.  The Drugging and Doping: Racehorses are injected with various drugs with the goal to keep them running. The Whipping: Animal cruelty! If you did that to a dog you would be arrested!  The Slaughtering: Although the industry downplays the extend of the  problem, most "retired" American racehorses are bled-out and butchered in foreign abattoirs. Go to https://horseracingwrongs.org/ for more information.

Spread the word: Don't bet, Don't attend, Don't patronize horse racing and join us at our next protest.

Justice for Tank

 

GoFundMe for Tank.   3-month old puppy named Tank was the beloved companion animal of Byron Shrewsberry and Melissa Richburg and their 5 children in Crystal River, Citrus County.  Tank was found skinned alive and tortured to death in their own back yard on Sunday July 5, 2015. Please help us raise the money needed to catch this criminal. FVA has already pledged $500. Any amount you can add will help. We must spread the word far and wide that this gofundme page exists so that we can raise the funds needed to motivate someone to turn in Tank's killer.

Any information can be reported anonymously to the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office at (352) 795-4241, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS,
or to FVA at 727-656-8368. www.floridavoicesforanimals.org  


http://tbo.com/news/breaking-news/group-offers-reward-in-killing-of-crystal-river-puppy-20150707/

No Roads To Ruin

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