On April 2nd, hundreds of New Yorkers gathered in the Meatpacking District, of all places, for the start of the 10th Annual Veggie Pride Parade. “We made it ten years; I don’t know how!” joked Pamela Rice, who produces the parade and post-parade exposition in Union Square.

Pamela Rice, organizer of Veggie Pride Parade

While some onlookers laughed condescendingly at the participants, the vast majority laughed with them, remarking on the creative fruit and vegetable costumes and good energy that filled the streets of Greenwich Village. TheirTurn spoke to many people along the parade route to get their reaction:

Several people told us that they would read the pamphlets and consider making changes to their diets, but we suspect that’s not the case for the man caught on camera saying, “Bro. I guarantee this was commissioned by Monsanto.”

A giant pea pod asks onlookers to “Give Peas a Chance.”

Advocates fighting on behalf of the chimpanzees abandoned by the New York Blood Center (NYBC) confronted employees during a recent protest staged at the organization’s corporate headquarters.  In an effort to ignore the advocates and avoid being recorded, the employees exiting the building looked down the sidewalk and covered their faces. None expressed remorse about the crime committed by their organization.

After conducting research experiments on almost 500 chimpanzees for 30 years and promising to provide the survivors with lifelong care, NYBC abandoned 66 chimps with no food or water on islands in Liberia, leaving them to die of starvation and thirst.  Using money donated by members of the public, Citigroup and The Richardson Center for Global Engagement, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has stepped in on an emergency basis to cover the monthly costs associated with feeding the chimps.

Chimps abandoned by NY Blood Center (Photo: Jenny Desmond for HSUS)

The NY Blood Center, which has earned hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties off of the research conducted on the chimps, has been condemned by its own corporate donors and in the media. In a New York Times article about the scandal, Dr. Brian Hare, an anthropologist and primatologist at Duke University, said, “I have studied great apes for 20 years in all contexts across the globe — labs, zoos, sanctuaries, the wild” and others. “Never, ever have I seen anything even remotely as disgusting as this.”

Among the many organizations that have spoken out against the New York Blood Center are Citigroup, MetLife and the Jane Goodall Institute

The approximate cost of feeding the chimps and paying their Liberian caregivers is $25,000/month, a small sum for an organization that earns over $300 million/year selling blood donated by the public. Advocates speculate NYBC is refusing to reinstate funding for the chimps not because of the cost but because the Chairman of the Board, Howard Milstein, does not want to cave in to pressure.  Following is an excerpt from Washington Post profile about Milstein:

“He’s not the kind of guy who backs down,” said Congressional Institute senior fellow Helen Kanovsky, a longtime friend who introduced Milstein to his future wife. In the rare cases when Milstein doesn’t get his way, he gets mad — and then he tries to get even, often through litigation….“He’s arrogant and difficult,” a former business associate said. “If you work with him, you have to understand: there’s only one way and it’s Howard’s way.”

NY Blood Center insiders say Chairman of the Board Howard Milstein “calls all the shots”

Advocates say the campaign targeting the NY Blood Center and its major donors will continue until the organization fulfills its promise to provide lifelong care to the survivors of its experiments.

In recent weeks, animal rights activists in NYC and Toronto have convinced dozens of people wearing Canada Goose coats to unzip the fur trim. Activists attribute their recent success to a growing public awareness about the cruelty inherent in producing Canada Goose and other fur coats.

Activists display fur trims collected during a protest at Paragon Sporting Goods, a Canada Goose retailer in NYC. (photo on right: Nathan Semmel)

During a protest at New York Stock Exchange on the day that Canada Goose went public, TheirTurn captured two of these incidents on camera.

Consumers who have agreed to unzip the fur have told activists that they thought the fur was fake or that they never stopped to think about what – or who – they were wearing until they were educated by the handouts, the recent media coverage and the anti-Canada Goose posters that have been plastered around the cities.

Rob Banks removes the fur trim from a Canada Goose coat in front of the New York Stock Exchange on the day that Canada Goose went public

Canada Goose decorates its coats with the fur of coyotes who are caught in steel leg-hold traps, where the wild dogs can suffer for days before the trappers return to shoot them in the head.  The canines often attempt to chew off their own limbs to escape the traps and return to their babies.

Activists donate the fur trim to rescue groups that use it to make blankets for orphaned animals.

The cure to many of our diseases and ailments is right under our nose, but the institutions that should be sharing this information are paid by corporations to ensure that we don’t get it. This moral crime is uncovered in an explosive new documentary film called What The Health, which will be available for streaming on Thursday, March 16th.

On March 7th, hundreds of New Yorkers attended the world premiere of What The Health. Co-directors  Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn held a Q&A after the screening.

Co-director Keegan Kuhn, Nutritionist Dr. Ruby Lathon & Co-director Kip Andersen at the world premiere of What The Health in NYC (Photo by Lukas Maverick Greyson)

Among the many shocking revelations in the film is that charities like the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association, organizations that should working to improve public health, are withholding life-saving information and promoting a harmful diet in order to curry favor with their corporate donors. “When I was healed, I couldn’t keep quiet,” said Dr. Ruby Lathon, a Certified Holistic Nutritionist who is featured in the film. “I couldn’t believe that there’s a secret out here that you can heal with food.”

In an effort to call attention to the plight of the coyotes trapped and killed to decorate Canada Goose coats, animal rights activists staged a protest inside of the Canada Goose department at Paragon Sporting Goods in NYC.

Paragon Sports customers watch in disbelief as animal rights activists protest the sale of Canada Goose

Activists protest and distribute anti-fur pamphlets at fur retailer Paragon sports

Workers yank the feathers out of the bodies of geese for clothing and bedding (photo: PETA)

Customers in the New York City vegan restaurant By Chloe wear Canada Goose coats with dog fur trim

Anti-Canada Goose posters have been plastered around New York City