In 1997, animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky freed 1,542 minks from a Canadian fur farm.
Yourofsky and fellow activist Katie Timko now travel the nation lecturing for the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They cite education as the most effective method for promoting veganism.
The duo delivered a speech last Thursday to students in the Fox Leadership lecture course, "The Politics of Food," on the ethical, health-related and environmental benefits of veganism.
"I cannot win in the courtroom, but I can win in the classroom," Yourofsky said. "Every day, two to five people I talk to turn vegetarian or vegan."
To convert as many people as possible to veganism, Yourofsky opened the speech by asking audience members to ignore prior biases during the presentation.
"Today's speech will give you the opportunity to right terrible wrongs," he said. "If you give us 60 minutes today with an open mind, you will leave a much more ethical person than when you walked in."
After showing a graphic video about the meat industry, Yourofsky and Timko took turns providing pro-vegan arguments that ranged from statistics on animal death to biological evidence that animal products harm the human body.
"Put a 2-year-old in a crib with a bunny rabbit and an apple," Yourofsky said. "If the child eats the bunny rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car."
The lecturers made no point of diluting the evidence, including several graphic descriptions of outcomes of meat consumption.
"Eating meat really does mean eating dead animals," Timko said. "It means that your body is transformed into a walking animal graveyard."
Though Timko and Yourofsky acknowledged that most audience members would likely cringe at such an image, they have met with support for their cause within the Penn community, especially through event organizer and Class of '04 College graduate Randi Sokol.
"I helped to organize this to let people be exposed to how a vegan diet is not only healthy to themselves, but also helps out the environment," Sokol said. "Penn Dining is now offering many vegetarian and vegan options, so it is becoming much easier."
"The Politics of Food" professor Mary Summers said that, aside from affecting their own health and the environment, vegans have much wider influence.
"Animal rights activists have had a real impact," she said. They "put a lot of pressure on McDonald's about how slaughterhouses are run, and in turn McDonald's puts pressure [on the meat industry] that may have more impact than the government."
While some students expressed skepticism about the practicality of the lecturers' claims, others were moved.
"This raises a lot of questions in my mind, and I definitely have a lot to think about when I go home," College senior Joanne Douglas said.
Ironically, the lecture was held in a room with a giant moose head adorning the wall.
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