Here’s What Your Gift to The Humane League Will Accomplish in 2021

Of course, all of this progress is happening because of generous supporters like you. Every year our collective impact for animals has grown. The strides we’ve made together this year will impact more than 350 million individual animals every single year. This is a remarkable achievement, and we have you to thank for making it happen.

But there is still a long way to go in an industry that profits from the torture of nearly 400 times as many animals each year. Our resources pale in comparison to the size and scale of the problem we are up against. After all, the factory farming industry has trillions of dollars to spend. Tyson Foods spent $276 million on advertising last year, an increase of $33 million from the prior year. Just that increase alone is three times larger than our entire budget. We're using every penny we have to fight these giants, and we will never back down.

We hope that you will consider making a donation to keep the momentum we gained last year going strong.

LOOKING AHEAD

In 2021, we will focus on

• Reducing the suffering of the 9 billion chickens raised for meat in the US
• Expanding our work globally to free the 6 billion egg-laying hens living in cages around the world
• Holding companies who have made commitments to higher animal welfare standards accountable
• Inspiring thousands of people to join us in leaving animals off our plates

Here’s what your gift will accomplish next year...

Fighting for the world’s most abused animals

In the United States, more than 9 billion chickens are raised and killed for meat each year, and these animals have no meaningful legal protections. Their lives—and deaths—are full of horrific suffering. We are laser-focused on ending the abusive practices that are rampant in this industry, and have developed a multi-year strategic plan for doing just that. We will pressure key retailers, restaurants, and hotels in the US and around the world to eliminate the worst and most widespread abuses of chickens in their supply chains.

Six billion hens around the world, including 230 million hens in the US, are kept in tiny battery cages every single year, unable to spread their wings or turn around, standing on bare wire cages. THL and a coalition of animal protection groups have pressured nearly every major food company in the US to phase out intensive confinement by 2026. Thanks to this work, the US cage-free flock has grown dramatically since the inception of our work to end intensive confinement: There are now over 90 million hens in the US who will never face life in a cage.

To ensure this progress continues until all hens in the US are free from cages, THL must hold companies accountable to their commitments. This is especially important in 2021 as we work to ensure that laws like California’s Proposition 12—which enacts important protections regarding the intensive confinement of farm animals—are implemented smoothly. Funding our work will enable us to use corporate outreach, pressure campaigns, and public education to hold companies to their commitments—including Quiznos and InterContinental Hotels Group, two of the 11 companies that have pledged to implement stronger animal welfare practices by 2021 or 2022. These funds will also help activate our growing volunteer base and allow us to support legislation to phase out intensive confinement of egg-laying hens, as well as mother pigs and veal calves.

On a global scale, the Open Wing Alliance (OWA) brings together more than 80 member organizations united in a common goal: to end the abuse of chickens worldwide. By providing training, support, and grants in under-resourced but high-impact areas of the world, the OWA has driven transformative progress for egg-laying hens, replicating the success of US cage-free campaigns all around the world and igniting the global movement for animals. The OWA is primed to effectively expand its capacity to provide the support, resources, and training needed for the coalition to achieve its mission as effectively as possible.

Building a powerful international movement

Big, powerful enemies need to be matched by a powerful movement of advocates and allies. We must simultaneously grow our network and amplify the power of our collective voice, while also developing and training our volunteers and allies. Simply put, achieving any meaningful change for animals depends on a continuously growing and engaged movement. We will accomplish this by strategically expanding our network of international animal protections organizations in the OWA, focusing on key priority regions where animals are abused. At the same time, we will invest our resources into increasing effective opportunities for engagement and action with our volunteers and supporters.

To complement our work to reduce the suffering of farm animals, we will continue to promote a plant-based diet by working at the individual, institutional, and local legislative levels. This year, our online ads promoting eating veg reached over 12 million people. Additional resources would allow us to invest in programs that reach new audiences online and on the ground, broadening the reach we gained this year by working in tandem with aligned organizations from other movements, like environmental and human health groups.

Scaling our most effective programs

To pursue this work in 2021, we are planning a very modest expansion of our budget to roughly $11 million. Through multi-year grants and pledges, we are fortunate to have secured half of the funding we will need to meet our 2021 budget, which leaves us with a funding gap of approximately $5.5 million as we enter the new year. Furthermore, we feel that we can effectively use additional funding beyond our budget of $2.5 million in 2021.

With this funding, we would invest in growing our staff, scaling our most effective programs globally, exploring emerging tactics, informing an even broader audience of the realities of factory farming through advertising, and strengthening operational support to build up our US and international teams. While there are strategies in place to actualize these goals within the planned budget, additional funding would allow us to scale our work and implement more comprehensive strategies that could ultimately impact the lives of hundreds of millions of additional animals.

Thank you for supporting The Humane League

Thank you to each and every one of you who has joined us or stayed with us during this challenging year. Because you care, we were able to make life-changing progress that will impact hundreds of millions of animals every year. None of this work would have been possible with you. We are excited to take on 2021 with you by our side, and make it the most impactful year ever for the animals!