Finding Teachable Moments During the Holidays

This time of year can be frustrating for many of us, but it can also offer teachable moments. It is easy to yell at co-workers who walk past a homeless cat and kitten in an alley, claiming they want to help but there is nothing they can do. It is harder, but more effective to explain why that kind of thinking is of part of the problem. How, as individuals, we are all capable of helping in some fashion. Those teachable conversations are difficult and one of the reasons we publish educational books. This situation happened to me (Davida) last week and once the cats were taken into a foster home and had received much needed medical care, I brought in copies of One at a Time to share with my co-workers. The book does a much better job explaining not only the plights of unwanted animals, but also how individuals can help, than I ever could. Our goal in publishing One at a Time is to change the way people think about shelter and unwanted animals and create positive change for them.

Likewise, with the holidays, family and workplace gatherings abound and many of us are questioned about why we choose not to eat animals. There are plenty of books touting the health benefits and why too much protein is actually bad for you. However, for many of us our own health benefits are not the reason we became vegetarian (no, that's just karma in action). Instead, we understand that to eat a turkey at Thanksgiving a life must be taken. This conversation can often turn hostile around the dinner table, with accusations of familial rejection and cross-accusations of murder. Those conversations are never teachable or productive. We prefer to introduce people to Amelia, Melvin, Aubrey, Ariala, and Rhosyln, turkeys who have distinct personalities, loves, and needs. These are the lives we seek to spare. Ninety-Five makes that conversation easier.

In the interest of taking difficult conversations and turning them into productive, teachable moments this holiday season, we have a special offer - buy One at a Time: A Week in an American Animal Shelter and Ninety-Five: Meeting America's Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs together for just $24.95. This is $10 off the combined retail price.

We also offer Giving Packages - a set of 5 books at 40% off the cover price - to give as gifts or donations to schools, libraries, coffee houses, community centers or any place where our books can reach the public. Other recipients might include teachers, clergy, legislators and policy makers, community leaders, celebrities, activists in other fields and anyone who can effect social change.

As a special offer to our newsletter readers, we are offering an assortment of free stickers with any book purchase. Please use the code "Stickers" in the special instructions box on our online order form. Please let us know if you want specific stickers, which can be viewed on our online order form.

Thank you for all that you do for the animals, and our best to you for a happy - and teachable - holiday season.

For the animals,

Diane, Marilee, Windi, and Davida

A new year - and a new decade!

Dear Friends,

A new year - and a new decade! - are upon us, and we look forward with hope.  We remain committed to creating a voice for the homeless animals waiting in shelters, their lives at risk; the imprisoned animals in zoos, never knowing how it feels to be free; and in the largest numbers, the billions of farmed animals raised and killed for the plate. Our hearts are with all of these animals, and we strive to end the conditions responsible for their suffering.
 

We believe books are a critical way to reach the "mainstream" public with information about animal-related issues, and even more so, that beautiful, moving books have the power to touch people's minds and hearts and to create change. The feedback we receive confirms it...

"Your beautiful book  Ninety-Five arrived and all work stopped as we marveled tearfully at the pages and pages of animals and their stories. After 10-12 years of vegetarianism (and then 'falling off' for several years) I have just completed 6 weeks of veganism!  As spring came on this year and the sun and flowers began, I found the needed inspiration. I am thrilled about your book."

"A few years ago I bought one copy of One At a Time, and I consider it one of the most important books I've ever read.  Now, I volunteer at a local shelter on Saturday and Sunday mornings...I KNOW I'm making a difference... I've also had the chance to adopt some the older cats with medical needs and give them a 'retirement home'... I just want to say thank you...you made a difference in my life and in the lives of several cats..."

"I was always of the mindset that if a zoo treats it's animals well, then they are OK to be visited. However, after reading an excerpt (from Thought to Exist in the Wild) in this month's Sun Magazine, I now realize that a zoo is all about the control that we as humans have over the animals in the zoo. I cannot support the imprisonment of wild animals any longer."

If you have not yet seen our 2010 wrap-up, we invite you to do so here.  This newsletter contains highlights of our activities during the past year; it also includes ideas for using our books to educate your friends, family and communities. Please join us in spreading the message of compassion and respect for animals in the upcoming year!
 

For the animals,

Diane, Marilee, Windi, and Davida

PS Please join our email list!

A Special Offer for Shelters and Rescue Organizations from No Voice Unheard

Dear Friend,

No Voice Unheard is pleased to announce that our book, One at a Time: A Week in an American Animal Shelter, is now in its fifth printing!

If you’re not familiar with the book, One at a Time brings the homeless animal tragedy vividly to life via a true account of seven days in a typical U.S. animal shelter. With compelling photos and moving vignettes, it chronicles the stories of 75 animals who passed through a northern California shelter during one week. Their gripping stories include excerpts from actual shelter records; the words of shelter workers, volunteers, and visitors; and the final conclusion of each animal's journey through the shelter system.

We are former animal shelter workers who are deeply committed to educating the public about the homeless animal issue.  We formed our non-profit organization, No Voice Unheard, to publish One at a Time after commercial publishers told us the book was too “realistic” to be marketable. Despite their predictions, the book has won awards and received tremendous praise, and we regularly hear from readers who have been moved to adopt from a shelter, and even volunteer, as a result of reading this book.


Hundreds of shelters and rescue groups use One at a Time in their own community outreach and education efforts, by …

• Selling it as a fundraiser or including it in their merchandise line.
• Giving it as a "thank you" gift to donors, volunteers, or staff members.
• Giving copies to local elected officials, policy makers, and community leaders, to help explain the challenges of their work, or as part of campaigns to get ordiances passed
• Using it as an orientation tool for new Board of Directors members or volunteers.
• Giving it to their local newspaper to review, creating an opportunity to talk to the reporter about their work and the animals in their care.
• Using it in humane education presentations and pet parenting classes.
• Reviewing or covering it in an article in their newsletter, using the article as an opportunity to teach about the homeless animal issue.
• Putting a copy in their lobby for the public to look at while waiting.
• Including a copy of the book with adoptions.
• Giving it as a door prize at events, or using it in a silent auction fundraiser.
• Placing copies in local libraries; keeping copies in the shelter library.

One at a Time: A Week in an American Animal Shelter would also make a great holiday educational gift for supporters, donors, and volunteers.

We offer a 50% discount off the cover price of to all non-profits, rescues, animal control, and educational organizations, making your cost $8.47 per copy.
Please contact us for shipping rates or more information,
at info@novoiceunheard.org or 831-440-9574.
 

We send you our deepest thanks for the work you do for the animals, and hope that One at a Time can help you in that work.

Marilee Geyer & Diane Leigh, co-authors
 

Eat, Think, Write: Vegan Authors Discuss Their Inspiration Panel at Baltimore Book Fest

The following is what Davida Gypsy Breier, No Voice Unheard board member, spoke about at the "Eat, Think, Write: Vegan Authors Discuss Their Inspiration Panel" at Baltimore Book Fest.

When I was a child I moved from urban Miami to rural Minnesota. We rented a farmhouse on a working pig farm. At 8, I understood the rudimentary concepts of animal welfare and as piglets were born that summer I helped the farmer give them worm medicine and vaccines. Naively, I wanted to care for and help them. I remembered one weak piglet that came inside the house overnight. I routinely saved and fed them our vegetable scraps. I knew which ones were friendly and which of the males were just too big for someone my size. They were a lot like my dogs and occasionally when they got out, the pigs and dogs would romp around. And then one day in the early fall I came home and many of the pigs were gone. I asked about what happened and was told the truth.

At 8, this translated to never eating anything that I understood came from a pig. These were the nascent stirrings of a belief structure that would take me almost 20 years to fully understand. In high school I declared myself vegetarian without having a firm grasp of the concept. In college I finally understood vegetarianism, but made uninformed excuses for eggs and dairy until my first day working at The Vegetarian Resource Group. The flimsy belief structure I had taken shelter under was gently questioned and I couldn’t defend it. I became vegan that day and never looked back. That was 12 years ago.

At that time, and the years following, I devoted a lot of my efforts to written and verbal outreach. I spent my days answering questions from concerned parents, people perplexed by the mysteries of tofu, and combative reporters. I eventually learned that impassioned beliefs need not be strident and that living by example was often just as powerful.


Years passed and I changed jobs a few times. I was still living as a vegan, but my activist role was limited to smaller circles. In 2006, I was working for book distributor of independent presses and one day a book landed on my desk from a non-profit publisher based in California. The book, One at a Time, was the best and most honest portrait of shelter work that I had ever seen. I contacted the publishers immediately and told them how much I loved the book, that I did rescue work, and that I wanted very much to work with them. Eventually they said yes, and in that instant my future changed.


While I enjoyed working with the publishers I represented, there was something about this book and I did everything I could for it. A year later the publisher released a book by Derrick Jensen, Thought to Exist in the Wild, about zoos. Then in late 2007 they approached me with ideas about their third book, which was to be photos and essays about farmed animals and promoting veganism. They didn’t realize I had worked at a non-profit devoted to vegan education, that I was in fact vegan, and had previously worked as a commercial photographer. I so wanted to be part of the project. That phone call was a pivotal moment in my life and for the book. Suddenly they had someone on the east coast who was willing and able to travel and take photos and I was being offered the opportunity to work on the kind of book that I had always dreamed of.


That spring I found myself rolling around on the ground to reach eye level with the residents at United Poultry Concerns, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, and Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, near Washington, DC. I would also make it to Peaceful Prairie in Colorado and The Key West Wildlife Center. I shot thousands of photos. After using words for so long, I found myself drawn to telling stories and revealing personalities with images. The mission of the book was to show people what we see in these animals, how they are unique individuals. To show them for themselves and that was my goal every time I got behind the lens.

Despite working for their protection for 20 years, I really had little experience with farmed animals. I held theories and pre-conceptions, but on my second and third trips to United Poultry Concerns I came to understand the sheer numbers of distinct personalities that greeted me when I walked into the yard. I also found that I LOVED taking photos of chickens. They are also the most abused of all farmed animals, with 9 billion killed a year in the US for food, and of all the animals I photographed for this project, they, in my eyes, are also the most expressive. I met hens who I could see bore the emotional scars of their years in darkened confinement, hens who you could just tell were gossiping, and roosters who knew how beautiful they were and how much my camera did indeed love them. The eyes of these birds could in the briefest flicker show irritation, affection, curiosity, fear, vanity, hostility, shyness, boredom, pain, pleasure, hunger, surprise, and joy.

I had the opportunity to photograph a group of 13 hens as they were transported from Rhode Island to the safety of United Poultry Concerns. They were scared, featherless in spots, and just bedraggled looking. A few months later I went down to UPC and I saw the same hens. The transformation was astonishing. The delight they took in simply being able to dust bathe was evident and being able to partake in small watermelons brought by a visitor just put them into joy overdrive.


Those moments are why I felt Ninety-Five: Meeting America’s Farmed Animals was so important. If I could convey that moment of joy, perhaps other people would understand their part in taking the joy away, and perhaps, just perhaps, they too will find that their flimsy belief structures need an overhaul.

Praise for One at a Time

Jim Mason, author of Animal Factories and Unnatural Order, had this to say about One at a Time: A Week in an American Animal Shelter “Leigh and Geyer have written a wake-up call to us all and it takes courage and compassion to respond. Summon up yours and read this book.”