Working Together for Our Human Community

Through collaborations with local organizations such as Community Solidarity—the nation’s largest vegetarian hunger relief group—national partners like PETA, and elected leaders including Suffolk County Legislator Rebecca Sanin and New York Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, we make choosing vegan simple and accessible for all. By providing free plant-based meals to families, seniors, and individuals in food-insecure communities and food deserts, we help ensure that nutritious, compassionate options reach those who need them most.

Supporting Companion Animals

Humane Long Island also supports rescues and shelters through a partnership with Greater Good Charities, providing low-cost, otherwise-wasted food to companion animals. This collaboration promotes the health and well-being of our nonhuman community members while ensuring the food is sourced without fueling traditional supply-and-demand chains.

Providing Vegan Food in Exchange for Lives at NYC Slaughter Markets

Humane Long Island goes beyond traditional food distribution programs by actively intervening in New York City live slaughter markets. Through carefully negotiated exchanges, we provide delicious plant-based food to market operators in return for sparing the lives of live animals. This program allows us to rescue animals from imminent slaughter, offering them a chance at life and safety while promoting compassionate alternatives.

By engaging directly with these markets, we meet animals on the front lines to protect them where they need it most. This approach aligns with our broader mission of fostering compassion for all beings and demonstrates that strategic, creative interventions can save lives even in environments designed for harm.

Through this initiative, we reinforce our commitment to practical, life-saving compassion, showing that with collaboration, negotiation, and resources like plant-based food, we can make tangible differences in the lives of vulnerable animals.

Humane Long Island promotes plant-based diets because they are compassionate, sustainable, and life-affirming. Eating plant-based food supports the well-being of humans, nonhumans, and the planet, creating a holistic approach to health, justice, and environmental stewardship.

Protecting animal lives

Choosing a plant-based diet is the most effective way to prevent animal suffering. Industrial animal agriculture confines billions of sentient beings to crowded, stressful, and unnatural conditions, often denying them the ability to express natural behaviors. Dairy and egg production are inherently cruel: female cows are repeatedly impregnated to produce milk, with calves often taken shortly after birth, while male chicks in the egg industry are routinely killed at birth. By reducing demand for animal products, individuals directly spare animals from exploitation, abuse, and premature death, promoting a world where all beings can live free from harm.

The Human cost of animal agriculture

Animal agriculture is not only harmful to animals—it also exploits human labor. Workers in industrial farms and slaughterhouses often face hazardous conditions, low wages, limited protections, and disproportionately high rates of substance abuse, mental health struggles, and interpersonal violence due to the physical and emotional toll of their jobs. Many are undocumented, making them even more vulnerable.

By promoting plant-based diets, we help reduce demand for these industries, supporting safer, fairer labor practices while advancing human rights and animal welfare simultaneously.

Protecting the environment for future generations

Animal agriculture is a leading contributor to environmental destruction. It drives deforestation, freshwater depletion, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution that threaten ecosystems and surrounding communities. Waste runoff from factory farms contaminates waterways, while overgrazing degrades soil and biodiversity. In the U.S., 70% of grain is fed to livestock rather than directly to people, highlighting the inefficiency and environmental cost of raising animals for food.

Factory farms also contribute to global health risks: high-density confinement of animals creates ideal conditions for pathogens to mutate and spill over to humans. Diseases such as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)—with a mortality rate up to 100 times higher than COVID-19—swine flu, SARS, MERS, and various strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have all been linked to intensive animal agriculture. These examples demonstrate that factory farms are not just environmental and ethical problems—they are breeding grounds for zoonotic pandemics that threaten global public health.

Choosing plant-based meals reduces ecological impact, protects habitats and water, and lowers pandemic risk, while fostering a sustainable and compassionate food system.

Health benefits

Plant-based diets are consistently recognized as one of the healthiest dietary choices. According to the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), vegan diets can:

• Lower the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers¹

• Promote healthy weight management²

• Improve cholesterol levels and blood pressure³

• Support digestive health and longevity⁴

These findings are supported by major health organizations, including the American Heart Association, the World Health Organization, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, all of which note that diets rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains are linked to reduced chronic disease risk. In fact, virtually all leading medical authorities recognize plant-based diets as an effective, evidence-based approach to long-term health.

By nourishing ourselves with plants, we protect our health while simultaneously reducing harm to animals and the environment.

A holistic approach to compassion

Humane Long Island demonstrates that feeding humans and nonhumans can go hand in hand. We partner with elected officials, hunger relief organizations like Community Solidarity, and national groups such as Greater Good Charities and PETA to distribute plant-based meals to communities and companion animal food to rescues.

We also rescue live animals at New York City live slaughter markets, exchanging vegan food for their lives and giving them a chance at freedom and safety.

Through these programs, Humane Long Island fosters compassionate ecosystems, showing that with collaboration, creativity, and resources, we can make tangible differences for both humans and nonhumans.

Choosing plant-based food is more than a diet—it’s a commitment to justice, health, and life for all beings.