Animal rights supporters, vegans and vegetarians joined together yesterday to show their support for a meat-free lifestyle in celebration of the national Great American Meatout.

Normally held March 20, the Meatout was held on campus later this year to take advantage of the warmer weather. With pamphlets and flyers reading "Choose A Living Earth" and "Kicking the Habit: Great American Meatout" the Michigan Animal Rights Society added its support to the cause with a display on the center of the Diag.

"The basic premise of the National Meatout is it"s a time of renewal, springtime is a time of life and we try to take advantage of that," said MARS President Kristie Stoick, an LSA senior.

FARM, a national public interest organization and the national sponsors of the day, which boasts celebrity co-chairs including Casey Kasem, Mary Tyler Moore, Jennie Garth and Bill Maher, provided various pamphlets on the subjects of becoming a vegetarian or a vegan, as well as animal rights in general.

"We"re out to promote a healthy lifestyle through vegan and vegetarian attitudes and animal rights," said LSA senior and group member Karl Ecklund.

"It"s important at the very least to get people to think about the issue, maybe they won"t go vegan or vegetarian for the day or a week but it"s in their minds for the future," Ecklund added.

The group is "trying to emphasize that meat eating is bad for the environment, that it"s not a renewable resource and the importance of the life part, animals are suffering for your burger," Stoick said.

The national effort to call attention to animal rights makes it one of the most vulnerable causes in society because people say that animals have no rights, Ecklund said.

"The National Meatout is a day that lets people on campus be aware of taking some of the ideas that promote less animal cruelty to heart," said MARS Vice President Erica Kebersky, an LSA senior.

Kebersky said many people showed interest in the topic. "The animal rights movement is one of the friendlier groups on campus, we got a lot of people approaching the table asking questions, we try not to alienate people," she said.

The group has made small strides in impacting friends and family members" attitudes concerning animal rights by changing family members" eating habits for a day or more, or changing eating and mental habits for a lifetime.

The primary focus of the group and promotion of the Great American Meatout is to change society"s staunch views about animal rights.

"If people would stop and think about what we"re saying, it might impact them. People ignore the message because they think they"re being threatened," said Stoick.

"Even if we impact a few people it"s worth the effort," Ecklund said.