Last Saturday Tiffany and I went to our first animals rights march in NYC. We didn’t know what to expect going into it. Tiffany had looked up some past marches ahead of time and saw all of the signs everyone made so she made a couple for us to represent Sleepy Pig Farm. I wasn’t too into the signs at first but Tiffany did a great job with making them and when the time came I was holding our signs high and proud.
The first thing we did on our way into the city was look up all of the vegan restaurants near the start of the march. We found some great restaurants but ended up going to Terri on 23rd street. It was 100% vegan with a smoothie bar, fresh pressed juices, baked goods, sandwiches and salads. Tiffany got the sausage, egg and cheese sandwich and I got the breakfast slam that came with french toast sticks, tofu scramble with hollandaise sauce, and home fries. It was all very good and very filling and the place was packed with people heading to the march.
Once we got to the Flat Iron Building, where the meeting point was, there was already tons of people. There were many different groups and organizations all with signs and t-shirts supporting different causes but all to support and promote the one real reason everyone was there, animal rights.
We met a number of different people from Massachusetts, New Jersey, and even England. We spoke to volunteers at sanctuaries, a few activists, plenty of animal lovers and even some friends. Many of them were asking about our farm and our animals which was a great chance for us to talk to people about. There were t-shirts being sold for the “Official Animal Rights March 2018” and pieces of paper being handed out with the chants everyone would be saying.
The march started with a few speeches that, unfortunately, we could not hear because we were so far back. After those speeches, we headed on the march walking by tons of people observing and taking pictures. Throughout the march were a few people with mega phones leading the chants for everyone to respond to. One of them was our good friend, Ray Ippolito. Ray was great at letting the bystanders know what were marching for and thanking them for their patience…Ray is great. At some point during the march we stopped at a cafe to get some water and I started talking this guy who was asking me questions about the march and veganism. It was a good opportunity to talk to someone I didn’t know about veganism, so I gave him a pamphlet about it and off we were back in the march. We all marched for at least an hour down to the East Village and at the end of the march the group just kept on going. We had to take off to come back home to take care of our babies.
We stopped to get some juices and water at Juice Press on the way back and grabbed some vegan doughnuts at Doughnut Plant in Grand Central Station.
Our first animal rights march was a great experience and a great chance to interact with some new, like-minded people. It also gave us more of a drive to care even more for our rescued animals and all other animals, as well. We hope to see you at the next one!
~ Joe
@sleepypigfarm