PAWS educates, facilitates, supports, and encourages our membership and the greater public to live an animal-friendly lifestyle. Veganism creates immediate and long-term positive impacts for animals, the environment and personal health through individual conscious animal-friendly choices and practices.

Vegetarianism is the practice of not eating any meat products including poultry, fish and shellfish. No flesh is consumed. This diet consists of vegetables, grains and plant products and may include dairy products and/or eggs. This dietary practice focuses on conscious animal-friendly food choices as well as investing consumer dollars in animal-friendly supply and demand.

Veganism is the practice of excluding all animal products and animal derivatives from the diet and daily lifestyle choices for ethical, environmental, and/or health motives. This animal-friendly lifestyle excludes the consumption of meat, eggs and dairy products, involves choosing animal-free clothing and cruelty-free products, and opposes animal research, animal experimentation and all forms of animal exploitation. Many people choose veganism because they want to abstain from practices that cause animal suffering, some want to support environmentally-friendly agricultural practices and others want to improve their health.

Veganism drastically reduces cruelty to all living creatures. PAWS works to educate the public about cruelty in the raising, housing, care, transportation, and slaughter of food animals with an aim to achieving the voluntary elimination of the human consumption of animal products. Every consumer who spends his or her dollars on products that do not support animal exploitation makes a vital step towards a compassionate future.

Veganism has a dramatic effect on significantly reducing water contamination due to runoff from factory farms, water usage, deforestation, desertification, soil erosion, fertilizer, fungicide, herbicide, and pesticide use, and the destruction of wildlife and marine habitat.

Studies have shown that an abundance of human health problems can result from an animal-based diet. Animal-based food consumption has been linked to high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, and cancer of the colon and breast. Humans are ingesting antibiotics, hormones, and other drugs given to “food” animals. Factory farms use these drugs to offset disease-promoting conditions as well as to raise production.

Veganism is a positive, exciting and fulfilling lifestyle choice. It is a constant process of self-examination, learning, and personal growth. PAWS promotes eating with a conscience by abstaining from eating meat and all animal-based foods. We offer information on alternatives to animal-based foods, animal-tested products and products derived from animals.

It is extremely important for us as consumers to be mindful of how and where we spend our money. When choosing the foods we eat, the clothes we wear, the household products we use, or animal-friendly and/or socially responsible investing, it is essential to spend our money in accordance with our ethics and beliefs. Animal-friendly consumer demand creates the need for companies to supply more and more compassionate products.

Given that an animal-friendly lifestyle drastically reduces animal suffering and exploitation, provides tremendous environmental benefits and can aid in optimum human health, PAWS encourages its membership and the greater public to consciously choose to live an animal-friendly lifestyle.