Community

About 40 walkers from Farm Sanctuary, a nationwide animal rights organization, held a fundraising walk-a-thon in Cambridge yesterday afternoon.

Walkers started at the Alewife T-stop and followed Massachusetts Ave. down to Harvard Square. They then turned around and walked back up to Porter Square, where the group ended the day with dinner at Massao's Kitchen, a vegetarian restaurant.

The event was one of several nationwide walks organized this weekend in observance of World Farm Animal Day and World Vegetarian Day.

Farm Sanctuary is a non-profit organization which works against factory farms, said walk organizer Steven W. Baer.

According to flyers passed out by participants, factory farms are giant windowless warehouses which focus only on agricultural profits. Animals in these farms are treated as "food machines" and suffer from disease, overcrowding and polluted conditions, the flyers said.

"Billions of animals are slaughtered every year in the United States," said walk organizer Mary A. Miles. "The general public is not connected to their suffering."