The Animal Policy Alliance Drove Nationwide Progress for Animals in 2024

The APA works to advance public policies for animals raised for food and fur. Founded in 2022 by The Humane League, the APA empowers members through relationship building and resource sharing. And in the three years since, the APA has already made a sizable impact—and they’re just getting started.

APA across the USA

Membership boomed in 2024: the APA almost doubled in size, welcoming ten new animal protection organizations into the growing alliance. The APA continued to provide ongoing support to their members, awarding $100,000 in grants to six member organizations, and launching a website with over 40 resources to effectively help animals.

Learn more about these ten new member organizations and the invaluable work they do:

• Animal Rights Initiative (ARI), Washington: “Animal Rights Initiative is dedicated to ending animal suffering through a multifaceted approach, combining government, community, and corporate outreach to achieve positive policy change for animals.”
• Associated Humane Societies (AHS), New Jersey: “AHS is dedicated to helping homeless animals, servicing municipal animal control contracts utilizing progressive approaches, and advocating for animal protection legislation at the state and local level.”
• EZ Animal Rights, North Carolina: “EZ Animal Rights works to reduce/end the abuse and suffering of animals through policy advancement, public education, and supporting humane technology advancements.”
• Godspeed Horse Hostel, New York: “Originally founded in 2004 as a horse rescue center, Godspeed Horse Hostel has expanded its mission and services to comprehensively address welfare issues for all animals.”
• Faithful Friends Animal Society, Delaware: “Faithful Friends Animal Society is an advocate for animal welfare, a shelter for homeless pets, a resource for pet owners and colony caretakers, and a beacon of hope for our community.
• Maine Animal Coalition, Maine: “Maine Animal Coalition is a state animal rights group dedicated to the elimination of animal abuse and exploitation through advocacy, education, and example.”
• Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA), Massachusetts: “In addition to their policy work, MSPCA operates multiple animal shelters and veterinary clinics, including Nevins Farm which is the only open-door farmed animal and horse rescue center in New England.”
• Tindakan, Colorado: “[Tindakan’s] interconnected approach includes advocating for animals, humans, and the environment, with experience in coalition building, drafting legislation, and maintaining impactful relationships with lawmakers and institutions.
• Anonymous Members, Minnesota and California: For strategic reasons, two of the APA members who joined in 2024 wish to remain anonymous.

Though these groups are based in the listed states after their names, their work and impact goes beyond state borders offering strategic guidance to other regions and generating momentum for the global animal protection movement.

Today, there are 26 member groups and counting. With the addition of these new organizations, APA membership expanded to six additional states. Currently, the APA has an active presence in 34% of all 50 states (and Washington D.C.).

APA victories and progress in 2024

The APA made a splash last year, sparing countless octopuses from the cruelties of intensive farming. Because of the strategic leadership of four member organizations (Social Compassion in Legislation, Animal Rights Initiative, Pasado's Safe Haven, and Northwest Animal Rights Network), California and Washington state banned octopus farming. These historic victories paved the way for the creation of the federal Opposing the Cultivation and Trade of Octopus Produced through Unethical Strategies (OCTOPUS) Act, banning octopus farming and sales in the US.

Members also made leaps and bounds for rabbits, defending them by defeating an alarming Connecticut bill. The bill would have permitted the slaughter of 1,000 rabbits per operation, and had powerful backers—the Connecticut Department of Agriculture and Connecticut House leadership. Rabbit farming and the slaughter process is one of the cruelest farming practices to ever exist, so APA member Connecticut Votes for Animals rose to the challenge. And with the support of the APA Support Team at The Humane League, they kept advocating for rabbits—successfully stopping the bill, and the cruel practice of intensively farming rabbits in Connecticut.

Factory farming interests in Missouri suffered a massive blow—and animals have APA member Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation (MAAL) to thank for it. MAAL had two major legislative wins in the state—wins that also benefited human and environmental health. They stopped a bill that would have weakened environmental regulations on CAFOs, and got another bill to pass that would curtail the excessive amount of waste from slaughterhouses. (The latter has already spurred another significant victory—a major slaughterhouse shutting down its operations!)

In addition to advancements at the state level, APA members also worked at the national level. APA members Vegan Activist Alliance and Chilis on Wheels—through their Healthy Future Students & Earth Coalition with Friends of the Earth and other organizations—succeeded in persuading the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to update its child nutrition meal patterns to include plant-based dietary preferences. Their Plant Powered Youth Steering Committee, which received APA grant funding, was critical in advocating for these improvements.

Aligning for the animals

With members working all across the country, the APA introduced policy focus areas in 2024 to promote deeper alignment and collaboration. These focus areas include octopus farming and sales bans, foie gras sales bans, fur sales bans, defensive strategies against the factory farming industry, protecting state cage-free laws, and plant-based procurement policies. While not all APA members engage in every focus area, all of the APA policy focus areas were carefully selected based on APA campaign trends and what policies have the capacity to make the biggest impact for animals used for food and other products.

The APA also held its third annual summit, giving members the dedicated time and space to come together, share knowledge, and plan for future progress. 30 individual advocates representing 20 APA member organizations contributed to, and participated in, multiple workshops, group discussions, and panel presentations. Over two productive days, members shared experiences and creative strategies, empowering members to keep protecting animals through policy change.

The year ahead

There will be a world free of systemic animal cruelty, and the APA is helping form it through local, state, and federal-level policy reform. Off the success of 2024, and with 2025 underway, the APA is determined to keep building on their hard-earned progress, and keep building up their coalition and movement.

To support the growth of the APA and help create historic policy changes, consider donating today. Every donation goes toward our shared mission to end factory farming.