Encourage Establishments Not to Sell Factory- Farmed Products Such as Veal

Call and/or visit restaurants and other food establishments in your area. Inform the chef or manager about the cruelty of factory farming and encourage them not to sell factory-farmed products. Farm Sanctuary can provide you with educational literature and information for this purpose.

If the restaurant refuses to sign the pledge, and insists upon selling veal from calves raised in crates and fed a diet that causes anemia, you may wish to consider handing out leaflets in front of the restaurant to educate consumers.

• To start, it may help to get a few businesses who don't sell veal to sign a pledge to not serve veal. Not only is getting a pledge that a business will never sell veal significant in itself, but you can use these pledges to encourage other restaurants to sign. Steakhouses that sell meat, but not veal, may be good to approach early in the process.
• When you approach a business, call or stop by and ask to speak to the owner or head chef. Always be polite and courteous. Explain what veal is, and why you are talking to them about it. Ask them if you can mail (or leave) them information and a pledge for their review. Address the letter directly to the individual with whom you'd spoken, and refer to your conversation in the letter. Depending on the tone of your initial conversation, you can decide what kind of pledge to give them. If the tone is, "I had no idea veal was so cruel!," give them the no veal at all pledge. If the tone is, "Our business will never stop selling veal," explain that there is non-crated, non-anemic veal, as well as crated, anemic veal. If they are buying non-crated, non-anemic veal from their distributer, they could sign the "no crated veal" pledge right away. If they are using crated, anemic veal, urge them to switch distributers. (If you choose to only approach restaurants to ask them to sign a pledge for no veal at all, that is fine, as well.)
• If the owner or chef is completely unwilling to hear you out, sign anything, learn anything, etc., you may want to keep the establishment in mind for a future leafleting event.
• If they sign a pledge, be sure to write them a nice thank you letter. Let them know that they did a good thing and that consumers respect ethical businesses.
• Keep a list of businesses that did and didn't sign the pledge. Caring consumers will want to patronize those establishments that have taken a stand against animal cruelty, while boycotting those who continue to support the inhumane treatment of animals. You can make this list available to the public, along with flyers and other educational literature.
• Organize educational leafleting events outside of businesses that sell crated, anemic veal if they refuse to sign a pledge. Order our No Veal Action Kit from www.noveal.org or 607-583-2225. It will provide you with all you need for a successful demonstration. A number of restaurants that initially refused to sign a pledge changed their mind when their customers were educated about the inhumane treatment of calves used for veal production.
• Get the media involved. If you have an event, or when restaurants in your area sign a pledge, inform the media. A sample press release is contained in the No Veal Action Kit, which you can order from www.noveal.org, or contact us for further media tips at activist@farmsanctuary.org or 607-583-2225.