The Humane Society of the United States raised money to end factory farming and improve farm animal lives with their 2019 To the Rescue! Los Angeles Gala earlier this month (May 4).
Animal rights activists including Diane Warren, Priscilla Presley, and Leona Lewis, along with LMFAO’s Redfoo, Tina Knowles, Harley Quinn Smith, and Erica Marie Sanchez gathered at the Paramount Studios backlot to celebrate the non-profit’s progress over the past year and raise more funds through a live auction.
(May 3, 2019 – Source: Getty Images North America)
Hosted by acclaimed actress, singer, and activist Bellamy Young, the event also recognized philanthropist Wallis Annenberg, chairman of the board, CEO and president of the Annenberg Foundation, with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Grammy award-nominated pop superstar Kesha with the Voice for the Animals Award. Justice William A. Newsom III also received the Humane Legacy Award (posthumous).
“I went vegan in college, so when I graduated, I began to be interested in animal rights and animal activism, and Humane Society was for the one for me. They were doing such a great job with having victories but also doing them with great grace, so I’d send them $20 at the end of the year and read about how to foster and what it meant to live a vegan life and how it could help more. All these decades later, to get to be here and really celebrate the people who have changed, who have had legislative victories, who have changed the fate of countless animals, I’m overwhelmed, humbled and so happy to be here and cheer for them,” Young told Celeb Secrets on the red carpet.
“I’m so proud of Kitty, she’s going to be exceptional,” she continued. “She has been exceptional this year and is handling the transition beautifully.” Kitty Block is currently the CEO and president of the Humane Society of the United States and is working harder than ever to help farm animals across the country.
(May 3, 2019 – Source: Getty Images North America)
Funds raised at the gala supported efforts to enact protections like California’s Proposition 12, which passed on last year’s ballot, ushering in the strongest farm animal protection law in the world. Its passage built on protections first passed by voters in 2008 to now ensure that pork, eggs and veal products produced and sold in California come from facilities that do not confine animals in small cages for their entire lives.
