VITA Animal Rights Center in Russia wishes you a Merry Christmas and happy and compassionate New Year 2010!

Dear friends! VITA Animal Rights Center in Russia wishes you a Merry Christmas and happy and compassionate New Year! Among various animal rights activities which we carried out during the last few months, we wanted to share with you the main one – the festival at the Centre for Ethical Ecology and the Cultural Development of Man which took place On December 10, 2009, on International Animal Rights Day (the event set up by Uncaged Campaigns http://www.uncaged.co.uk). Its program included several elements: giving awards to the winners of the contest “Ethical Gourmet”, presentation of the poster on vegetarianism with Russian celebrity-vegan Olga Shelest, presentation of a new film on humane education, and awarding prizes to the Russian winners of the international contest “Design Against Fur”. Photos of the even can be download at: http://www.vita.org.ru/foto/20091210/vita20091210-02.htm

In 2009 VITA held for the first time in Russia a contest under the title “Ethical Gourmet” that was aimed at supporting Russian producers of vegan Food. On December 10 the awards were presented to the winners. They were given a diploma signed by VITA and the International Vegetarian Union, “For your Contribution to propagating a Healthy and Ethical Way of Life”. Among the best products were hummus, soya kefir, yoghurt, sour cream, tofu, bio-oat yoghurt, cedar cream, salted fern, flaxseed porridge, agar jelly, black chocolate and many other products. The jury panel included famous Russian individuals who handed over diplomas to the winners. In the future Vita is planning to publish a guide of vegetarian goods of
Russia that will include information about 100 best products and
companies. At the end of the vegan party Irina L. Medkova, M.D.,
academician of Russian Academy for Natural Sciences, author of many
books and articles on vegetarianism, author of the section
"Vegetarianism" in the "Dietology guide" spoke.

At the festival we presented the poster featuring Olga Shelest, a vegan and a famous TV and radio host. The poster begins the series of posters “Life in Harmony with Nature” in which famous Russian vegetarians and vegans will participate. The photo session took place in the only Russian sanctuary for farm animals, “Bim”. Together with Olga, Martyn the bull and Jack the rabbit -- saved from slaughter -- are pictured in front of spectators.

During the same festival we presented the first Russian film about the successes in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in introducing alternatives to animal experiments “Humane Education in the CIS countries”. The film was made by VITA and InterNICHE (International Network For Humane Education, www.interniche.org) with the support of DAAE (Doctors Against Animal Experiments, www.aerzte-gegen-tierversuche.de/en). It tells us about modern, progressive alternatives to animal labs, the world student movement against terminal labs, the struggle of CIS students for the right to get a humane education and the opinions of professors who introduced alternatives. The shooting of the film took place in 10 universities which had introduced alternatives to animal experiments, four of which are Russian, four Ukrainian and two Belarussian. The film includes interviews with psychologists, lawyers, parliamentary deputies, animal protection organizations, biologists, vets and doctors about the issue of animal experimentation.

The program of the festival also included presenting awards to the Russian winners of the international contest “Design Against Fur-2009” (www.infurmation.com). This contest has already become a tradition for our Country; this was the seventh event. The Russian jury panel included Laima Vaikule, Artemy Troitsky, Elena Kamburova and other famous individuals. Ivan Zemlyakov, the 1st-prize winner of the Russian region of the "Design against Fur" contest, came from as far away as Krasnodar to receive the honorable diploma and cash prize.

And the evening ended with the guests enjoying a wonderful vegan buffet!

Best wishes,
Elena Marueva,
VITA director

24.12.2010

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VITA Animal Rights Center

W: www.vita.org.ru
E: vita@vita.org.ru

THANK YOU