While there are a lot of animal-rights activist groups that exist, some are significantly more active than others. Each group has different tactics to accomplish the same goal. Animal-rights activists strive to discredit animal agriculture, mislead consumers, and promote the idea that animals have full rights equal to that of humans.
As it relates to the agriculture sector, the fundamental goal of animal-rights advocacy is to eliminate livestock production and take meat, milk, eggs, seafood, and more off of our plates.
There are hundreds of animal-rights activist groups. Here’s what you need to know about some of the most active and well-funded groups:
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
When we think of animal rights, PETA is often the first one that comes to mind.
Norfolk, Virginia-based PETA is one of the largest animal rights organizations there is. PETA uses shock tactics to convince people not to consume or use animal products. They also defend criminal action by the most radical extremist groups. They “oppose speciesism” and push to eliminate animal agriculture, the fur industry, hunting, and research on animals.
PETA has been known to seek employment at farms to make “undercover” videos. They will also buy stocks in companies with the goal of introducing shareholder resolutions related to animal agriculture, or they buy shares of an entity like Facebook in an effort to direct its censorship.
Beyond agriculture, PETA has become notorious for their kill rate at shelters, which topped 90 percent for several years in a row, fueling allegations of hypocrisy between their “mission” and their actions.
Remember, this is a company that wanted people to linguistically “stop beating a dead horse” but somehow still has a higher kill rate than most shelters in its area. The tactics have confounded even its own followers at times.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
HSUS is one the most misleading groups to the average person — and this is because HSUS has essentially no affiliation with your local pet shelters, despite having the name similarity. They commonly run advertisements featuring celebrities and showing mistreated animals in order to fundraise, so they market to the public’s sympathy quite well.
There is a lot of style where the substance should be.
People assume what they donate will go to local shelters, but instead it goes to HSUS who use it not to help animals (only 1 percent of their budget goes to local shelters), but instead to advertise and pay their employees.
HSUS runs many different campaigns targeting animal agriculture and even hosts conferences and events for their supporters.
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)
Similar to HSUS, the ASPCA runs misleading and highly emotional advertising campaigns to fundraise and accomplish its goals. And just like HSUS, the ASPCA has come under fire for this.
In March 2024, the former CEO of the organization — who was instrumental in the infamous Sarah McLaughlin commercial — now laments that the organization isn’t using the money to actually help pets at local shelters as he had envisioned.
Recent activism by the ASPCA has included lobbying against what they’ve dubbed to be “factory” farms — a term for which these is no actual definition outside of the activist lexicon.
The ASPCA likes runs pressure campaigns using tactics like undercover videos and protestors to coerce restaurants, retailers, and food-service brands to make decisions that further their agenda. While the ASPCA seems like their focus is on shelter animals, they also place a large focus on campaigning against animal agriculture and have repeatedly shown a gross misunderstanding of how agriculture and sustainable practices work, including how access to advanced technology and herd health initiatives are positively revolutionizing the very industry that it spends the majority of its money attacking.
Direct Action Everywhere (DXE)
DxE is one of the most radical animal rights groups. DxE themselves say, “We reject the speciesism that enables the mass torture and killing of nonhuman animals and the blatant disregard for their home — our planet — as well as the unjust and oppressive institutions and ideologies that harm all animals including humans.”
To accomplish this goal, DxE organizes protests, films “undercover” videos, trespasses to steal animals (which they call “open rescues”), and other disruptive actions.
DxE gained notoriety a couple of years ago when it joined PETA in vilifying young people in agriculture, specifically criticizing FFA and 4-H. They target personal social media pages with phrases like “future animal abuser” in reference to these kids.
DxE runs a lot of campaigns against animal ag and is extreme in completing direct actions against animal agriculture. Lately, DxE has been advocating for a legal right to conduct “open rescues” in which they “save” (aka steal) animals from “factory farms.” In December 2023, group co-founder Wayne Hsiung was sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years of probation for such an incident. He was also given a restraining order to avoid going near poultry farms in the future.
The Humane League (THL)
The Human League exists to end animal agriculture. They often focus on legislative action and mainly target and pressure food service companies to adopt new animal “welfare” standards and eventually push for veganism. They also organize protests and online actions to push for companies to change their protein supply chains.
In May 2024, The Humane League initiated the Animal Protection Alliance, a coalition of fifteen organizations across the United States aiming to end what they call “large-scale animal cruelty” through policy change. The alliance will be aggressively trying to expand in coming years with the goal of having at least one member group in every U.S. state by 2030.
Animal Outlook
Animal Outlook (formerly known as Compassion over Killing) uses a variety of different tactics to accomplish its goals. Their representatives seek work on farms and processing plants in order to make “undercover” videos. They also campaign for food service companies to decrease their use of meat.
They claim to want to help farmers transition out of contract farming — or what they’ll often refer to as “factory farming.”
The group also promotes “Meatless Mondays” and a generally dairy-free, meat-free, and egg-free diet. In 2023, Animal Outlook sued the American Heart Association, accusing the medical group of misleading the public by adding a “Heart-Check” certification mark to beef products.
Mercy for Animals (MFA)
Mercy for Animals advocates for a completely vegan lifestyle. They have five approaches to accomplishing their goals: “undercover investigations,” legal advocacy, corporate engagement, organizing, and public engagement.
MFA also sends “undercover investigators” to farms and completes drone “investigations” to collect videos of farms. The group has often been accused of staging the “undercover” videos to cast the farms in a negative light, or they’ll recycle old footage, use footage from other countries, take things out of content, or take an ordinary situation and use sad music or narration to make a situation look way worse than it actually is.
Animal Recovery Mission (ARM)
Animal Recovery Mission conducts “undercover investigations” and “raids” on farms, ranches, and processing facilities. ARM is best known for the “undercover” videos that targeted Fair Oaks Farms in 2019 and led to a major animal-cruelty investigation at the Indiana dairy. In that case, a local prosecutor noted during the inquiry that multiple witnesses said the ARM employee encouraged or coerced the abusive behavior depicted in the portions of video that have been released publicly. (ARM denied that is the case.)
Florida-based ARM also trains people on how to be hired to work “undercover,” ARM runs campaigns on billboards and at vegan events and expos.
There is no shortage of animal rights groups, and many of them are connected by sharing personnel and funding. These are just a few of the biggest and most public groups that you should be aware of, but all animal rights groups have the same goal – of ending animal agriculture.
Michelle Miller, the Farm Babe, is a farmer, public speaker, and writer who has worked for years with row crops, beef cattle, and sheep. She believes education is key in bridging the gap between farmers and consumers.
