Current Events
UUAM is proud to celebrate its 40th Anniversary as an organization. We promote and express our values of compassion and justice for all beings, serve as a central source of awareness and education, and provide a community to support one another.
As part of our celebration, we are sponsoring a t-shirt design contest. This contest is open to all animal lovers, whether members of a UU congregation or not. Entries will be judged blindly by members of the UUAM Board. We will select and print up to 3 winning entries (first, second, and third place). We will award $100 to the first-place entry, $75 to the second-place entry, and $50 to the third-place entry. AND, all winners will receive a free T-Shirt of their winning design.
The deadline for entries to be received is August 8, 2026. Please send entries and questions to lori@uuam.org.
Entries must be submitted as a digital file in .jpg or .png format. The design must be animal-centered. It would be nice, but it is not required if the design were UUAM-focused. Entries that used AI in design creation will not be docked, but the use of AI must be mentioned. We urge you all to get creative! We plan to have our UUAM logo on the back and will tailor that design to mesh well with the winning front designs.
Submissions must be original work (from yourself or working with AI), free from plagiarism, and may not use images, art, or text from other human or AI creators without proper attribution or permission. (Examples: 1. Don’t do Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, and throw in some animals you had AI help you create to pop in on top. 2. You find this amazing photograph by a vegan artist you want to use, but didn’t ask for their permission to use it first.)
Submitters keep the right to use their artwork however they like, while also granting UUAM ongoing permission to use, reproduce, modify, and share it for any legitimate purpose.
Monthly Pet Loss Support Group
DETAILS: The Pet Loss Support Group is held on a monthly basis, and new participants are always welcome. The meetings are held on the first Wednesday at 8:00 pm (Eastern). In order to gain access, just email Rev. Elleven (relleven at gmail dot com) and he will send you the link and password (or you can find it on the UUAM Facebook page). Visit Rev. Russell’s Animal Chaplain page.
Rev. Russell Elleven, DMin
UUAM Chaplain
UPCOMING SUPPORT GROUP
Wednesday July 1, 2026 at 8 pm ET / 7pm CT / 6pm MT / 5pm PT
The Humane Hoax: Nonviolence Beyond the Labels with Hope Bohanec
Sunday September 13, 2026
7:00 pm ET/ 6:00 pm CT/ 5:00 pm MT 4:00 pm PT
Join author and activist Hope Bohanec as we dig into her edited volume The Humane Hoax: Essays Exposing the Myth of Happy Meat, Humane Dairy, and Ethical Eggs. Hope will examine the new trend of humanewashing and greenwashing in animal product marketing, unpacking labels like cage-free eggs, family-farmed dairy, and grass-fed meat. Is this trend really the answer to the numerous concerns of raising animals for food? What do the labels actually mean? This talk invites a deeper reflection on how “humane” labels can subtly dull our moral awareness, offering comfort in place of clarity. Drawing on ethical and spiritual perspectives, Hope explores how cultivating sensitivity, awareness, and nonviolence requires more than choosing “better” products—it calls for a reawakening of perception itself. What does it mean to live nonviolently in a world that constantly reframes harm as humane? How might the concept of Ahimsa, non-harming, help us see beyond the labels and respond with greater compassion?
Hope Bohanec has been active in animal protection and environmental activism for over 35 years. She is the Executive Director of Compassionate Living, host of the Hope for the Animals Podcast, founder of The Humane Hoax Project, and has published two books on the subject of humanewashing and greenwashing. Hope has studied Jain and Hindu Dharma for many years and founded the Ahimsa Living Project to explore the deep parallels between the Dharma religions and veganism.
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