With 2024 behind us, the Animal Agriculture Alliance is looking ahead at trends to be prepared for in the new year from the animal rights movement. These groups, which bring in more than $800 million in income annually, have a large budget to put towards their mission of eliminating animal agriculture. While each group shares the same overarching goal, their methods to achieve that goal vary.
In 2024, the Alliance shared insights from several animal rights conferences on upcoming campaigns and tactics to be aware from within the movement. These conferences included the Humane Society of the United States’ Taking Action for Animals Conference, Animal Legal Defense Fund’s Animal Law Conference, the Animal and Vegan Advocacy Summit, and The Reducetarian Summit. Here’s a look at some of the main themes from those events, as well as quotes from conference speakers:
Targeting large companies (processors, integrators, food brands) and attempting to portray them as “villains” to the public until they comply with demands
- “Infiltrate. Figure it out. Corporate espionage. Figure out what their weaknesses are, where their vulnerabilities are, and then how we can exploit them.”
- “Today you’re going to be Tyson’s CEO, which I know sounds really scary . . . but you need to understand your adversary and that’s what we’re here to do today is understand our adversary to figure out ‘how can I hurt you most effectively.’”
- “If you can find one (a company) that's like, got a bit of a vulnerable brand, is trying to work market share, you can say that their animal welfare is considered a liability. You do a bad report, you show them what liability looks like with a logo on the campaign and an undercover investigation, and you show them.”
Using the legal system to target animal agriculture and focusing on pathways to get more “animal protection” legislation passed, beginning at the local level
- “I'll look at anything that will grind the gears of the ag and the laboratory industries, but I would say the two areas that I spend the most time on are trying to get criminal cruelty complaints in factory farms and slaughterhouses . . . And I've also taken a liking to public records law. I think there's some value in FOIA requests, state public records law, litigation.”
- “Don’t forget about those city council people because that’s when they slide those little bills through . . . They’re the ones that make a lot of decisions on voting and a lot of things for animals in our cities and our towns. Lobby them too because they’re also very accessible.”
- “I can’t think of very many ways you can have more of an impact on the lives of individual animals on a big scale than working on state legislation.”
Calls for collaboration and creative ways to gain funding by aligning with other movements — especially climate
- “I spent a long time trying to get deforestation out of the supply chain then I had this realization that that was a really dumb idea. We should just get meat out of the food system rather than trying to fix the climate.”
- “You can’t talk about climate change without involving the vegan movement. You can’t talk about climate change, and you can’t talk about factory farming . . . I think those two are highly correlated.”
Attempting to build in-roads with health professionals and nutrition experts to push the belief that meat and dairy are “bad”
- “People want to (switch to a vegan diet) because the animals suffer, but because the doctors say no, so (they) won’t go for it, so we start collaborating with professionals . . . so they can be aware of the benefits.”
- “You can enter the health system . . . for example, we work with the dietetic association. We work with universities and research bodies associated with the government. We work with the Licensing Council of Medical Practitioners...and lifestyle medicine associations. These are all entry points for you to make a difference in healthcare.”
Moving into 2025, we expect many of these themes to continue within the animal rights movement. If you’d like to learn more or want to stay updated as the year progresses, consider attending the Alliance’s 2025 Stakeholders Summit, set for April 30 to May 2 in Arlington, Va. (just outside of Washington, D.C.!). Early bird registration rates are available through February 28. Learn more and register here.
Emily Ellis is the manager of communications and content at the Animal Agriculture Alliance. In her role, she works to execute the Alliance’s issues management and communications strategy.
