Fashion Bites

Last year they raised $1,000. This year they were aiming for 10 times as much. And while they might have come up short, Concordia’s Animal Rights Association’s (CARA) 2008 Montreal World Vegan Day show still managed to get its message of awareness against puppy mills in Quebec across to the 250 people in attendance.
A year in the making, Saturday night’s fashion show, held at the Just for Laughs theatre, featured cruelty-free fashion from Healing Heart Designs, Matt & Nat, American Apparel and Macbeth footwear. Attendees also got to taste fried seaweed and tofu, spring rolls, endive salad and vegan tapioca courtesy of ChuChai. A performance by Montreal’s The Hot Streak closed the evening, before the crowd migrated to B-Side for the after-party.
The event was hosted by Montreal actor Adam Reid and Rachelle Segal. Reid was expecting a diverse crowd for the evening, despite the often-negative label attached to veganism.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being vegan, I think it’s misunderstood. Tonight is all about getting the right information,” he said.
All of the night’s profits went to raising funds to fight the puppy mill problem in Quebec. “We do everything we can to raise awareness, from activism, to legislative actions to campaigning, to save these puppies,” said CARA president Lucas Solowey before the event.
The fashion show’s profits, roughly $6,000, will be divided equally among three groups, CARA, the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) and the Global Action Network (GAN). The SPA is a fairly recent animal-rights organization founded in Ottawa that concentrates on the puppy mill issue. GAN on the other hand does not have a specific campaign countering illegal breeders, but many of its volunteers have worked on the issue. GAN is a Canadian non-profit organization based in Montreal that focuses on educating the public against animal abuse.
According to different animal welfare activism groups, there are as many as 2,000 clandestine breeders currently operating in Quebec.
The puppy mill situation has recently come under public scrutiny after two such establishments were raided on Sept. 26 and Oct. 1 in Rawdon and Lanaudi