Contents

1. Officers Selected for New Fiscal Year; New Director Added
2. Northwest VEG President Featured in Oregonian for his “Green” Lifestyle
3. Pappa G’s Vegan Organics’ Chef to Present Cooking Demo at August 19 Potluck
4. New Website Offers Reviews of Vegan Food at Local Restaurants
5. The Farm Animals Want You to Walk for Them on Sept. 29
6. What Are Your Veg Favorites in Portland/Vancouver (survey with prize drawing!)?
7. A Word About Vegetarian Pit Bulls
8. The Dineout Tradition Continues at Northwest VEG
9. Oregon Sees Legislative Victories for Animals
10. It's Not Too Late to Catch a Veg Festival

E-Bits is edited by Charley Korns. If you are interested in writing for future E-Bits editions, please email charley@nwveg.org. The next deadline is Sept. 20, 2007.

Officers Selected for New Fiscal Year; New Director Added
by Don Merrick Vice President, Northwest VEG

At Northwest VEG’s July Board Meeting, we selected officers for the new fiscal year, as specified in our bylaws. Peter Spendelow, Don Merrick and Linda Sant’Angelo agreed to remain in their former positions as president, vice president and treasurer, respectively. Barrett McInnis agreed to become secretary, replacing Carol Merrick who has served in that capacity since Northwest VEG formed in 2003. Cindy Koczy and Barrett have agreed to share the job of volunteer coordinator, replacing Maggie Raczek who served in that capacity since Northwest VEG formed.

The reconstituted board of directors voted unanimously to add Emily Pepe to our board. She will serve out the fiscal year and have the option to be elected to a 2-year term at our June 2008 election. Emily brings many personal skills and interests to our leadership. She was part of the committee that brought us the successful VegFest in May with 1800 some people attending. Her untiring efforts on publicity were crucial to this success.

Each month, usually on the second Saturday, the Board meets to discuss upcoming events, new possibilities, volunteer needs, budget, membership, and other concerns. Decisions are made based on consensus, with board members voting to decide certain matters. Northwest VEG members who areinterested in becoming more active in the group are welcome to attend the board meetings. Please contact (503) 224-7380 or info@nwveg.org if you would like to attend.

As of August 2007 our new board and officers are:
Peter Spendelow, President
Don Merrick, Vice President
Linda Sant'Angelo, Treasurer
Barrett McInnis, Secretary and Co-Volunteer Coordinator
Jill Schatz, Membership Coordinator
Robert Cheeke, Outreach Coordinator
Cindy Koczy, Co-Volunteer Coordinator
Carol Merrick
Emily Pepe

Northwest VEG President Featured in Oregonian for his “Green” Lifestyle

The InPortland section of the Oregonian recently ran a story on Peter Spendelow, President of Northwest VEG (pictured), focusing on his walking his talk as an advocate for a environmentally sustainable lifestyle. Peter is a solid waste analyst for the state Department of Environmental Quality, where his research and reports “can send shock waves through entire industries.” Read the article (viewable until Aug. 10) or email jill@nwveg.org for a copy.

Join Northwest VEG at the West Hills Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 8470 SW Oleson Road in Portland on Sunday, Aug. 19, at 5:00 pm for its monthly vegetarian potluck. Please bring a vegan or vegetarian main dish, salad or dessert, a card listing its ingredients, and plates and utensils for your use. If you come alone, figure the amount to serve 4-6; increase the amount 4 servings for each additional person in your party/family. Northwest VEG potlucks are alcohol-free events. For more information call (503) 224-7380 or email info@nwveg.org. If you can volunteer to help at the potluck, please contact volunteer@nwveg.org or call (503) 224-7380. A donation of $2-5 per person is suggested to help cover the cost of the room rental. After the meal, Grant Dixon (pictured, wearing red bandana) will provide a cooking demo with small samples for those attending. He is owner and founder of Pappa G's Vegan Organics serving vegan comfort food at Daily Grind Natural Foods on Hawthorne. He will present a few of the entree items featured at Pappa G's. These delicious, organic vegan offerings such as Heirloom Tomato Salad and Sesame Tofu and Quinoa will delight your palate and showcase the best of the Northwest's local and seasonal produce.

PLEASE NOTE: access to the location may still be restricted due to the road upgrade, in which case you may get there via Taylors Ferry Road (coming from I-5) or Hall Blvd. coming from the east or west; from any of the above turn north on Washington Drive, accessing Oleson about 1/2 block from the venue's entrance. We do advise you to have a map handy.

Last year Northwest VEG organized a local Walk for Farm Animals that included 113 walkers and raised close to $10,000 for Farm Sanctuary, a national farm animal rescue and education group with large farms in California and New York. I hope we can have an awesome turnout this year, as well. Here are the important details so far:
Date: Saturday, Sept. 29
Time: 9:00am registration; walk at 10:00am
Where: Blossoming Lotus, 925 NW Davis
Registration fee: $10
Sponsor: Northwest VEG

Please visit Farm Sanctuary’s website, www.farmsanctuary.org. On the left side of the page is a link called “Media Center” with a drop down menu. You will find “Walk for Animals” at the bottom. You can also go directly to the link at www.walkforfarmanimals.org to register, or call me and I will send you a form. You can set up a pledge page through www.firstgiving.org.

I will be posting flyers, contacting various businesses for donations, and setting up a Farm Sanctuary table at least three times this summer. If anyone is interested in posting flyers, I can send you some. If you’re really fun, you can help me at the Farm Sanctuary table! Lunch will be on me!

Please pass on the word so we can sign up even more walkers than last year. Farm Sanctuary has changed the world for so many animals, as well as changing many practices in the factory farming arena, but they need our help to keep this going. Contact me if you have any questions: portland-oregon@walkforfarmanimals.org; (503) 778-0223, home; (503) 206-7183 cell.

A Word About Vegetarian Pit Bulls
by Theresa Allen, Ph.D., Contributing Writer

They go together.....
It may seem counter-intuitive to feed such a bloodthirsty animal a flesh-free diet. Well, maybe not to most of you, who I presume are enlightened enough not to accept the mainstream media’s version of the predator pit bull without some hearty skepticism. Jody, my 6-year old pit bull (pictured), is a vegetarian and almost vegan (her Trader Joe’s biscuits have egg powder and nonfat milk in them). She loves almost any soy product, but her favorites are the tofurky brats and the smart dogs, naturally. As a friend used to lecture me, ”It’s just not natural to feed a dog soy since so many of them are allergic to it.” It’s true that some dogs cannot digest soy and are allergic to it, but what is also true is that dogs are more likely to be allergic to meat than soy! This is why there are several vegetarian dry kibble brands out there for dogs.

Okay, back to pit bulls.....why the predator persona suddenly? Historically, they have been American war heroes and beloved pets - take for example, Petey of Our Gang fame. Theodore Roosevelt had one in the White House. Pit bulls have been around for hundreds of years, yet suddenly they are the new villain with a reputation that apparently merits outright bans in some cities, refusal of service at groomers and kennels, profiling by insurance companies, and various other restrictions. This has made it very hard for people like myself to do normal things like rent and obtain mortgages (see "The Case Against Dog Breed Discrimination By Homeowners' Insurance Companies" in the Connecticut Insurance Law Journal by L. Cunningham) So what is behind all the banning and exclusionary practices?

A sudden threat...
Its not a simple issue at all. Without going into too much detail, there are several factors at play in the new predator construction of the pit bull. The first is that this breed is more popular than it has ever been and, therefore, there will naturally be more incidents involving pit bulls. The second is that this breed is especially popular with people who are not responsible guardians. The third factor is biased media, which reports pit bull incidents 22 to 90 times more than a similarly severe attack involving any other breed (www.animalfarmfoundation.org/topic.php?id=4&topic=17). Finally, breed specific legislation (bsl) seems to stem from deeper cultural anxieties having to do with what the symbol of the pit has come to represent, namely race, class and criminality (for an interesting read on this idea, see Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker article, “Troublemaker: what pit bulls can teach us about profiling,” www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/02/06/060206fa_fact).

My experience with pit bulls started when I began an animal rescue group near South Central, Los Angeles in 1996. Most of the dogs we rescued were pits and pit mixes (pit bull is a slang term, not a registered breed). They were very hard to re-home and a woman in Pasadena actually said, “You (meaning our rescue group) should be ashamed of yourselves bringing these pit bulls into nice Pasadena families’ homes.” It was then that I began to understand the mindset behind breed prejudice. Since then I have done a great deal of research on the breed and had many different pit bulls and other dogs in my home together. In the 11 years since starting the rescue group, I have never had a problem with my pit bulls, foster and otherwise. The problem seems to be with people. As a pit bull, Jody is used to being marginalized, so being a vegetarian pit is a walk in the dog park.

To protect pits from local bans, check out your local pit bull advocacy group at www.pawsitivelypitbull.org.