Jan 11, 2008

From the Southwest Philly Review

Fit For Man And Beast
by Caitlin Meals

Many days, Nick Cooney leaves his home in the mornng and doesn't return until the sun has set. He can be found all over the city, meeting with restaurants and nonprofits and handing out leaflets - all in the name of animal rights. It's a cause he rallies for passionately and selflessly as the director of Hugs For Puppies, an animal advocacy nonprofit based out of house.

He's been with Hugs since its beginning in 2003, when it was an informal group of about a dozen or so friends who got together weekly. After its incorporation through the efforts of Cooney and several members, including a pro bono lawyer, in '05, it has only continued to grow - with membership in the Greater Philadelphia area coming in at about 1,000.

Education is at the top of the group's priorities. Cooney said weekly activities like handing out leaflets and protesting at restaurants that serve foie gras have given the group a voice and even garnered national attention, including a mention in an October Time magazine article on Philadelphia's foie gras fight.

Cooney feels by doing this work, Hugs can make a major impact by informing people on things - mainly practices toward animals on factory farms - that are unsafe or generally unknown.

"When it comes to animal issues, it's almost miniscule the amount of people who are able to devote their time to animals, especially farm animals," the 26-year-old said. "Because so few people are able to work on these issues day in and day out, that's why I do it."

After all, Cooney said, the common perception of how livestock and other animals raised for food are treated is far from reality, especially on industrial farms.

"Whenever someone asks you what a farm looks like, you think of a big red barn, green fields, chickens roaming, pecking the ground," he said. "But for 95 percent of the eggs [from factory farming] the reality is far different. Up to 70,000 hens are in small wire cages the size of a sheet of newspaper, housed in large warehouses in stacked cages. There's no space, excrement falls into the cages beneath. They're never outdoors, never see the sun, never feel the grass beneath their feet.

"People have a right to know" he said of food purchases and what ultimately can become eating lifestyles. "We educate so they can make an informed decision."

Growing up in Fox Chase, Cooney said his family's diet included meat, dairy and eggs. At 18, he came across information detailing the processes and procedures of factory farming. In addition to learning about force-feeding and hens kept in poor conditions, Cooney was disturbed that hormones were injected into many animals to help them grow faster and it sometimes transferred to consumers. Cooney promptly became a vegetarian and later, a vegan, like many Hugs members.

Staying true to his beliefs, Cooney became a nutrition educator for the Urban Nutrition Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, where he stayed from '03 to '05, when Hugs was officially incorporated. "When I moved back [to Philadelphia] after college, I was looking for a job with a positive impact on the community," he said of graduating from Hofstra University, where he received a degree in interdisciplinary studies. "It seemed like a very good job where I'd be able to make a difference. [Southwest Philly is] close to Penn, is an inexpensive neighborhood, seemed like it already had some sort of community of people concerned with issues I was, and offered access to everything in Center City but was affordable."

Even though the area is one where Cooney felt at-home right off the bat, he said he'd like to see more of his neighbors show interest in his efforts with Hugs. "There's less than I would have expected," he said of local membership, but he's happy to stay and work on recruiting.

Still, the advocacy work tugged at his conscious and Cooney felt it necessary to devote his full-time attention to Hugs, a name that came from founding member Dave Lambon of Norristown.

"He came up with it probably to reflect a lot of work done [at the beginning] that was devoted to animal testing and experiments on dogs," he said. "It's a cute, cuddly name, but it gets people's attention. Hopefully, it helps people make the connection between the dog or cat they love very much and have at home, and other animals such as those on farms or used in labs that are also very much deserving of respect and compassion."

In recent months, Cooney said the group's protesting against restaurants serving foie gras - either by demonstration or by meetings with the owners - has seemingly resulted in 40 establishments citywide taking the item off their menus, including James in South Philly and at restaurant mogul Steph Starr's 11 eateries. Different Hugs members offer different services, Cooney said, noting there is a core group of volunteers who pass out literature, help design ads, and work with the yearly budget. As director, Cooney oversees all of this and maintains the group's website.

Last month, Hugs launched an additional website with Chicago-based non-profit Mercy for Animials called VegPA.net, which lists all vegetarian and vegetarian-friendly restaurants, grocery stores, bars and bakeries throughout the Keystone State. Cooney did extensive research and placed calls for months before sending the information to Mercy For Animals, which sponsors similar sites in other areas.

Hopefully, Cooney said, consumers will turn to the site's address information and menus whether they are vegans, vegetarians, or just looking for something new. So far, the response has been good - another feather in Hugs' cap.

"Caring about animals is something that transcends all political parties, all economic levels, all levels of education," Cooney said. "Compassion for animals is something inside most people."

Cooney and his fellow members have been successful in finding this in the many people they've talked to, almost always sharing with the person something they didn't know. "I think we have been very effective. We've reached a good amount of people and hundreds of animals have been saved directly," Cooney said. "We have tons of anecdotal evidence - people go vegetarian because of our work, or they've gotten a pamphlet or seen us, and see that all animals deserve our respect."

Cooney said the group will go on with its efforts, including continuing to take a deeper look at factory farm conditions.

"When you see the reality of the suffering going on, it touches somewhere deep in you," he said. "People get a sense of discomfort somewhere deep in them and they make a commitment: 'I'm going to work to prevent as much of this as I can.' And as a result, animals and people in society as well are better for it."

Back to "In The Media" main page