10 Animal-Friendly Ways to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

Posted by Calvin on March 05, 2024

No matter how you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, you don’t have to bend on your compassionate values. This green-filled holiday is a great opportunity to show animals why they’re lucky to have you on their side. 🍀 Here are 10 ways to honor Irish traditions and have a 🔥 St. Patty’s Day without harming animals, with the first five detailing delish treats:

1. Super-Minty Shamrock Shake

Create a cow-friendly version of this classic, creamy drink. ☘️ The most important thing to remember is to leave out dairy—the dairy industry separates mother cows from their calves, keeps them in cramped conditions, and sends them to slaughter when they’re no longer seen as profitable. 😢🐮 Instead of dairy, our recipe uses bananas, spinach, cashews, and other tasty vegan ingredients.

2. Easy Kale Chips

This green, crispy snack is an amazing addition to your celebration. With 5 grams of fiber and a mega dose of vitamins in a 1-cup serving, kale is a vegan king and one of the most nutrient-rich greens you can eat. 👑 Kale, olive oil, salt, and garlic powder are all you need to make the chips. 😲 Talk about a simple and delicious snack.

3. Vegan Irish Soda Bread

Soda bread is a staple in Ireland, and it’s super-easy to make a vegan version. 😅 Just use an egg replacer instead of eggs, soy milk instead of milk from cows, and vegan butter instead of dairy-based butter. That way, you can enjoy your hearty Irish bread and chickens and cows can enjoy their lives instead of being exploited for their eggs and milk and then slaughtered. 🐔🐄

4. Vegan Shepherd’s Pie

ICYDK, sheep are a big deal in Ireland—there are more sheep than humans there! 🤯 To help prevent these animals from suffering in the meat industry, make a sheep-friendly shepherd’s pie. 🐑❤️ Instead of sheep flesh, use vegan ground beef–style crumbles or cooked lentils, and be sure to use soy milk or liquid nondairy creamer. All other traditional shepherd’s pie ingredients—like potatoes, peas, and carrots—are already vegan. 😎

5. ‘Corned Beef’ and Cabbage

Cows don’t want to be killed for their flesh, and making mouthwatering vegan meals like this one can help drive down the demand for meat. This dish uses seitan—one of the best sources of vegan protein—along with cabbage, carrots, and other nutritious ingredients. 😋 Our recipe makes four servings, so this one’s great for sharing with your besties.

After you’ve enjoyed one or more of the goodies listed above, keep that animal-friendly St. Patrick’s Day spirit going by making these five “green” choices:

6. Going Vegan

Going vegan is the best thing you can do for animals and an excellent way to help the environment. 🌳 Animal agriculture is straight-up devastating for the planet—it pollutes the air with greenhouse gases, wastes trillions of gallons of water, and destroys rainforests. 😩 By living vegan, you’ll have a much smaller carbon footprint, help keep our water clean, and protect the rainforests, which are home to many animals.

7. Starting a Garden

Planting a garden is one of the all-around greenest things you can do. 🌱 Growing food in your yard or a community garden helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by cutting down the number of trucks and planes used to transport store-bought food. Plus, so many veggies are already green in color. 🥬🥒🥦 Pick up some tips from these young gardeners and start planting.

8. Going Low-Waste

Even vegans can end up producing more trash than we want, which is why it’s always a green idea to figure out how to reduce waste. You could take some of the quicker steps on our list—like shopping in bulk using reusable bags and jars—or go all out and designate St. Patrick’s Day as the time you finally make vegan milk. 👌 It’s 100% worth looking into anything that will make the world a greener place for all animals to enjoy.

9. Using Life Hacks

Making a few eco-friendly tweaks to your daily life can have a huge positive impact on the environment and your wallet. 💸 Take a sec to look through the life hacks on our list and see which ones you could use. Who knows? By the end of St. Patrick’s Day, you might have created a new plant pot, hair scrunchies, or a tug toy for your dog out of stuff you would have otherwise thrown away.

10. Cleaning Up Animals’ Homes

Animals don’t produce garbage, yet they’re the ones who deal with our trash cluttering up their homes. Our waste can seriously harm them—birds can get their beaks wrapped in fishing lines left behind by fishers who don’t care about harming sentient beings, squirrels can choke on bottle caps, and many types of hungry animals can get their heads stuck in cans or jars. 😰 By simply picking up trash in parks, around ponds, or in other outdoor public spaces, you can clean up animals’ homes and possibly save their lives. 😍

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One of the best ways we can help animals as a group is by rallying behind animal-friendly legislation. Please urge your U.S. rep to cosponsor the Better CARE for Animals Act—and ask your friends to do the same!