Kalista Barter
Together, we are eliminating the cruelest inventions of our lifetime, within our lifetime.
This year, you challenged an industry that has gotten away with extreme and widespread cruelty for far too long. You faced giants and said “no more.” This year, you changed the lives of millions of animals. And though they can’t thank you, we can. Thank you.
THL's strategic and effective approach is dismantling factory farming, piece by piece. We evaluate where we can make the greatest impact for the most animals as quickly as possible. And with chickens making up 90% of all land animals raised for food globally, we direct our efforts to helping them through systems that will result in a permanent change to their living, and dying, conditions. So not only are you helping animals today, but you are helping generations of animals who are trapped in our broken food system by supporting our near-term and long-term systemic interventions.
Eliminating the cruelest inventions of our lifetime, within our lifetime, is an ambitious but achievable goal. But with the right resources, and the right partners (like you), we can free billions of animals from cages, and within just a couple more decades, end the use of battery cages completely. Through our combined efforts, we can eradicate profit-driven systems of mass suffering that countless leading animal welfare scientists and thought leaders call "cruel and inhumane".
Which is why I'm taking this opportunity to tell you about our plans for the year ahead. It's important to me that we continue to earn your trust, so that you know how we will put your time and money to work to help animals. And that you see and understand what it is we're aiming to accomplish with you in the coming year. We still need to raise $4.7 million—23% of our annual operating budget—to fund this year's budget, and fortunately a group of donors have generously offered to match your donation through the end of the year to help close our funding gap, and help us start 2024 strong. I hope that you'll consider donating to support this work and help animals suffering on factory farms right now.
Because animals need our help every day, please consider joining The Heart Beat, our monthly supporter group, at whatever amount is comfortable for you, to help sustain this work every month. If making a donation right now isn't an option, I would love to talk to you about easy ways that you can leave a future gift to help us continue this work, and your legacy for animals.
In 2024, your support will help us…
Eliminate battery cages from the planet
Factory farming is a global crisis, and battery cages—tiny wire cages used to confine hens in the egg industry—are one of its cruelest inventions. Stacked in dark windowless sheds, these cages pack birds together so tightly they cannot spread their wings. Unable to move around, their bones grow brittle and easily broken, and their natural desires to explore and nest are denied. Instead of soft grass beneath their feet, they spend two years standing on wire—all for one purpose: to lay as many eggs as possible, as quickly as possible. This is the reality for an estimated 4 billion animals every year.
In 2016, The Humane League founded a coalition to end this practice. The Open Wing Alliance (OWA), unites 100 nonprofit organizations from 67 countries to create a unified front to eliminate battery cages from the planet. With the force of a global coalition whose power lies in its diversity of member organizations, each with unique strengths and local expertise, we have successfully secured over 2,500 commitments from corporations to eliminate cages from their egg supply chains—leading to the end of battery cages in several countries and US states.
This year, the OWA pushed 103 global companies to pledge to rid their supply chains of cruel battery cages, including first cage-free commitments from corporations headquartered in Japan, the Middle East, Greece, Ukraine, Peru, Ecuador, South Africa, Argentina, South Korea, and Taiwan. And following a months-long international campaign facilitated by the OWA, Jollibee Foods Corporation—the largest and fastest-growing restaurant group in Asia, and the parent company of popular brands like Smashburger and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf—pledged to reform its global supply chain, impacting an estimated 2 million birds annually. This victory is especially key as we look to progress cage-free work in Asia, where nearly 68% of the world's eggs are produced.
Campaigns against global companies have worked well, but to phase out battery cages across the globe, we must have a robust and high-functioning alliance in every major country. To achieve the current need and anticipated growth, we need to create small teams in key regions around the world that can then support the differing needs of groups in their respective regions. Those regions are Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). Setting up these teams for success would mean hiring more campaigners and corporate negotiators to develop customized strategies in coordination with regional OWA leaders, hiring more animal welfare scientists to provide local groups with scientific evidence and support tailored to each region, and establishing regional teams to recruit and support new groups on effective campaigning. We aim to start this expansion in 2024, funding permitting.
Hold hundreds of companies accountable
Thousands of companies around the world have pledged to transition to 100% cage-free, eliminating the practice of confining hens in tiny, barren battery cages. Now, THL is holding these companies accountable, pushing the companies falling behind on their commitments to follow through on their promise. And we know our strategy works because globally, 89% of companies followed through on their 2022 cage-free pledge.
Our corporate campaigns pressure large companies to enact animal welfare policies that curb the worst abuses of innocent animals. We focus on food manufacturers, restaurants, and retailers for maximum impact in the reduction of animal suffering and push for institutional change. By securing welfare commitments from these companies, we create a domino effect that forces giant corporate food producers to end their horrific practices and reduce the suffering for animals raised for food.
In 2023, THL held 36 companies with global cage-free commitments accountable to reporting progress on their pledges. Companies like Kellogg's, PepsiCo, and Yum! Brands—the world's largest service restaurant company and the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell—began publicly reporting on their cage-free commitments. All of this is translating to real change on the ground, with 39.4% of the US egg-laying flock now free from cages (over ~120 million hens), up from just ~10% when THL began this work in 2014.
By 2026, 364 US companies and 108 global companies need to fulfill their cage-free commitments in order to make good on their own deadlines to spare animals from extreme suffering. This means that now is a critical time for us to focus on ensuring these companies fulfill their commitments to hundreds of millions of animals, and for us to show them the strength of this movement. We see the writing on the wall—supported by recent research that shows the vast majority of people (~80%) across various countries believe that egg-laying hens shouldn't suffer in cages—that people will no longer stand for this abuse. And it's our job to ensure that companies don't turn their back on animals.
Secure permanent legal protections for animals
When asked, the vast majority of Americans support better treatment of animals raised for food. Yet giant corporations in industrial agriculture continue the horrific abuse of billions of animals on US factory farms every year. This discordant landscape is bolstered by the reality that farm animal advocates lack sufficient power to influence legislators. Consequently, farm animals are tragically left out of public policy conversations—and left vulnerable to extreme abuse.
We launched the Animal Policy Alliance (APA) in 2022, with the explicit mission to end large-scale animal cruelty through policy change. While factory farming is a global crisis, the APA focuses on grassroots US legislative change because we recognize the key role that the US plays in both enabling and repairing our broken food system worldwide. By leveraging our track record of transparency, collaboration, and effectiveness to fill this important gap in grassroots legislative advocacy, we will cement long-term protections for animals in the US.
Already 14 member groups strong, the APA has a goal to reach at least 30 active alliance members by 2025. We will provide APA members with the legislative research and campaign support needed to achieve policy victories that impact animals raised for food or fur, and reduce animal product consumption overall. Through these individual victories, APA members will be able to build long-term relationships with legislators, encourage them to push for more farm animals protections, and build their supporter and fundraising base, thus expanding our movement and influence to eventually win larger legislative victories. As the needs of every member-organization and location differ, THL Public Policy staff work tirelessly with each APA member to support them individually.
Educate and inspire millions more people to end factory farming
Big, powerful corporations and governments need to be matched by a powerful movement of advocates and allies. In order to end the cruel confinement of hens in cages, pigs in gestation crates, and ultimately all abuses that animals suffer within the factory farming system, we must simultaneously increase the size of our network—and therefore the power of The Humane League—while also developing and training our volunteers and organizational allies, and ensuring we have an active base of donors to carry our work forward. Simply put, achieving any meaningful change for animals depends on a continuously growing and engaged movement.
THL builds power by engaging more people in farm animal advocacy and building stronger networks of organizations. In 2024, we will expand our reach to the millions of people who are concerned about the damaging effects of factory farming, and help them leverage their voices and their philanthropic dollars to repair our broken food system, together. We will measure success by having a larger supporter network that donates more often, a changemaker program that produces more digital and offline actions to help hens, and stronger networks of organizations through our OWA and APA that are creating change for hens and other animals raised for food.
Thank you for continuing to fight for animals
Time and time again, we've seen the factory farming industry take the "easy way out"—raking in massive profits while offloading its problems onto animals, the public, and the environment. Here's just one example. Last year, facing a major avian influenza outbreak, corporations decided to "cull" millions of healthy egg-laying hens by roasting them alive. Meanwhile, Cal-Maine Foods, the largest egg producer in the US, saw profits rise by over 700% in the first three months of this year... with those hens bearing the ultimate burden.
At The Humane League, we refuse to accept that this is the status quo. We refuse to accept a world where pigs, cows, and chickens suffer behind bars, their cries for help ignored and unheard. We refuse to let the factory farming industry get away with its egregious lies, greed, and cruelty. And that means going up against one of the most powerful, money-hungry industries in existence. It means telling them that no animal deserves to live life in a cage so small she can't even turn around. It means refusing to accept the current reality, just because it's "the way we've always done things."
This is no small feat. The factory farming industry literally has trillions of dollars at its disposal. But Big Meat doesn't have a clue how much we really care, and just how much we can do with every dollar we have.
It's time for corporations to put their money where their mouth is—to prove that they're making good on their promises to animals. It's time for a paradigm shift. And thanks to advocates and everyday consumers around the world, that paradigm shift is already underway.
To continue fueling the life-changing global progress made by The Humane League, we will need to raise at least $11 million to fund our 2024 budget. With partners like you, we can mend our broken food system, piece by piece. Thank you.
