Recommended Charity Fund: July 2024 Update

In February, thanks to the generous donor support of ACE’s Recommended Charity Fund, we were able to award $1,394,955 to our 2023 Recommended Charities. This was our second-largest disbursement ever! Those 11 organizations have updated us on how they’ve used their grant to help animals, and we’re excited to share their achievements with you.

By donating to our Recommended Charity Fund, you are supporting multiple impactful charities working around the globe to reduce animal suffering. Much of the inspiring work outlined below would not be possible without the grants provided by this fund. Thank you!

Recommended Charity Updates

Dansk Vegetarisk Forening

$103,354 grant

• Dansk Vegetarisk Forening (DVF) won—jointly with the Climate Movement of Denmark—a greenwashing lawsuit against Europe’s largest pork exporter, Danish Crown.
• DVF brought two legal cases of discrimination against vegans to court. The first case, about a daycare institution, became a landmark verdict establishing veganism as a protected belief in Denmark. The second case, about hospital food, was surprisingly lost, but immediately appealed to the High Court, where it will appear in late 2024 or early 2025.
• DVF influenced more funding toward Denmark’s Plant-Based Food Grant: In April 2024, the government and parliament allocated an additional 60 million DKK (about 8 million USD).
• DVF has presented and attended meetings in person and virtually to discuss Denmark’s plant-based policies and share best practices for NGOs with stakeholders in various countries, including Lithuania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the U.K., Chile, and the U.S.
• DVF held multiple meetings with politicians from across the political spectrum. The highlight was a one-hour presentation and Q&A in front of approximately 50 members of parliament.
• DVF again participated in Denmark’s annual democracy festival, Folkemødet, holding 12 panel debates on topics related to the transformation from the current animal-dominated food system towards a more plant-based food system.
• DVF started several projects related to transforming food consumption in Denmark, including promoting plant-based foods at festivals, educational institutions, and conference centers, as well as within the takeaway sector and among retailers. These projects were only partially funded by other grants; ACE’s support allowed DVF to move forward with them.

Fish Welfare Initiative

$169,085 grant

Research and Development

Fish Welfare Initiative (FWI) is investing heavily in research and development to identify improved interventions for reducing the suffering of farmed Indian major carp. They worked on the following studies between February and June 2024:

• Satellite Imagery Study: This study assessed the accuracy of using satellite technology to predict water quality values remotely. FWI published their findings in June, which showed that this technology seems preliminarily promising.
• Feed Fortification Study: This ongoing study is assessing the impact and cost viability of feed fortification as a welfare improvement, given that the current feed most farmers give to Indian major carp seems to contribute to poor nutrition and farm water quality. The study will conclude in October.

Farm Program

FWI’s farm program, the Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture, is their main avenue for helping fishes right now. It involves visiting partner farms regularly, ensuring stocking density limits, monitoring water quality and other welfare indicators, and providing corrective actions when water quality falls below required levels. This program’s main accomplishments in this recent period were the following:

• An estimated 360,000 fishes helped via water quality improvements. For a description of how these animals were helped, see FWI’s Impact Page.
• An additional 40 farms committed to the program, bringing the total number of onboarded farms to 142. (See FWI’s OKRs for an up-to-date total.)
• Various programmatic improvements, such as improving their farm visit frequency and dissolved oxygen measurement system.

Partnership

FWI launched a new program to assess the viability of scaling welfare improvements via collaboration with an external partner.

Faunalytics

$95,836 grant

• Faunalytics conducted a study looking at benefits, barriers, and opportunities in animal advocates’ use of research and data in their efforts. Key findings were shared with funders, researchers, and advocates alike.
• Faunalytics published research identifying collaborative opportunities between the animal protection and environmental movements, outlining 10 key strategies for increased collaboration.
• Their latest study explored the diverse approaches taken by farmed animal advocates, focusing on how and why organizations pursue different strategies and what they need to be more effective. This expansive project surveyed nearly 200 groups in 84 countries.
• Their Global Slaughter Statistics and Charts, a visual overview of the number of farmed animals slaughtered in each country, received a major overhaul combining previous years’ data onto one easy-to-navigate page.
• Faunalytics created a new factsheet to help advocates decipher and improve animal product welfare labels.
• They introduced a new resource series, Tactics In Practice, which explores the science behind different animal advocacy tactics, one popular intervention at a time. First up: The Science Of Social Media Advocacy.
• Animal advocacy organizations can now replicate Faunalytics’ studies in their communities using their new replication guide.
• Faunalytics continued to update their Research Library (now at over 6,000 resources), featuring new articles on topics such as Chile’s Animal Industrial Complex (Part 1, Part 2) and Legal Impact for Chickens’ guest blog on Prop 12 and the EATS Act.
• They published results from their annual Community Survey, where 79% of the sample agreed that Faunalytics’ work has helped guide their advocacy decisions.
• Last but not least, Faunalytics launched a new and improved website, helping advocates access more research and data than ever before.

Legal Impact for Chickens

$84,543 grant

• The Case Farms appeal by Legal Impact for Chickens (LIC) is proceeding. LIC and Case Farms are currently negotiating the record on appeal. Meanwhile, another lawsuit complaint mentioned LIC’s Case Farms case. The lawsuit is a putative class action by contract growers against Case Farms for violating the Packers and Stockyards Act.
• Sadly, Costco’s board rejected LIC’s chicken welfare demand. That said, LIC’s Costco lawsuit and demand has at least helped raise awareness regarding animal welfare. To date, Costco has mentioned LIC’s animal welfare lawsuit, demand, or both in a series of seven publicly available SEC filings (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
• The defendant slaughterhouse filed its sentencing memorandum in USA v. Rhode Island Beef and Veal. In doing so, the slaughterhouse felt the need to address LIC’s amicus brief regarding animal cruelty. The court then held a sentencing hearing. At the hearing, the slaughterhouse again felt the need to address the issue of animal cruelty, in response to LIC’s amicus brief. The judge sentenced the defendant slaughterhouse to three years of probation, a $20,000 fine, and a $1,200 special assessment. Unfortunately, the judge declined to treat animal cruelty as a reason to increase the sentence.
• The prestigious Equal Justice Works (EJW) has announced that it will sponsor the Harvard Law School grad Isabella Nilsson as a two-year EJW fellow for LIC—a huge honor for an animal rights organization. Isabella’s fellowship will be supported by California ChangeLawyers and another anonymous sponsor.
• LIC hired its first-ever non-attorney employee: Legal Operations Specialist Sage Max! Sage is in charge of all LIC’s operations and also does paralegal work. Before coming to LIC, Sage helped build the effective altruism-oriented animal litigation program at Richman Law and Policy.
• LIC has been hard at work developing our next cases—including by speaking with several ag industry whistleblowers.

Wild Animal Initiative

$169,085 grant

• Wild Animal Initiative celebrated its fifth anniversary! Stakeholders were invited to celebrate past and ongoing accomplishments and hear insights into the evolving landscape of wild animal welfare science.
• They released their 2023 annual report, which details papers published last year. The report spotlights a grantee who describes her subjects as looking “like a guinea pig and a potato had a baby,” features diagrams of key concepts covered by their fall workshop series, and provides an overview of their finances.

Research

• Physiology Researcher Michaël Beaulieu published a paper entitled “Oxidative status: A general but overlooked indicator of welfare across animal species?”
• Outreach Manager Janire Castellano Bueno and Science Director Vittoria Elliott co-authored a paper on integrating welfare into comparative cognition research.
• Researcher Simon Eckerström Liedholm’s manuscript on compelling theoretical reasons to expect direct and indirect welfare benefits of wildlife contraceptives was accepted for publication.
• Physiology Researcher Bonnie Flint continues working on the House Sparrow Project. The project has obtained federal ethics approval from the Institutions Animal Care and Use Committee and is seeking Houston-area backyards volunteered by community members for next steps.

Outreach

• They published recordings of their fall workshop series on methods in wild animal welfare science.
• They attended several conferences, presenting on the potential for wild animal welfare science to have far-reaching global impacts and hosting an interactive workshop on measuring wild animal welfare.
• They revamped their Researcher’s Starter Guide, a resource for students and early-career scientists interested in joining the field.

Grants

• They published a new database, which includes information on the geographic locations, animal groups, and scientific disciplines of previous grants.
• They have selected grantees for the 2023 Challenge Grant Proposal and plan to publicize that information soon.

Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği

$84,543 grant

• Kafessiz Türkiye (Turkey Without Cages), a program of Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği (ÇHKD), secured cage-free commitments from Eataly Market, ANIM Hotels, and NG Hotels. Additionally, Kempinski and Marriott Hotels, which committed in previous years, have reported completing their transition to cage-free this year.
• ÇHKD continues its campaign against Migros, one of the largest retail chains in Türkiye with over 3,300 stores nationwide. Since February 2024, KT has collected 50,000 signatures for the campaign petition and mobilized supporters to send 14,000 emails to Migros’ communication channels, totaling 190,000 signatures and 30,000 emails to date. ÇHKD also attended Migros’ Shareholders’ Meeting to ask questions and advocate for a cage-free commitment. Additionally, they held a meeting with Migros officials in July.
• Kafessiz Türkiye has been mentioned or featured in 11 news articles and interviews, including coverage of their attendance at the Migros Shareholders’ Meeting. Additionally, ÇHKD’s Instagram followers have increased by 10% since February.
• ÇHKD’s summer internship program continues, with two interns joining the team to support the Future for Fish program.

New Roots Institute

$84,543 grant

Educational Outreach

• In the 2023–2024 academic year, New Roots gave 81 lessons in high-engagement schools. These schools, defined by having at least one active fellow and providing one classroom lesson, collectively impacted over 450,000 students and faculty.
• In total, 1,417 lessons were taught in 353 schools throughout the academic year. 91% of students surveyed in these schools support more plant-based options in their communities and legislation to limit the impact of factory farming.

Recruitment and Training

• New Roots fellows have achieved campaign successes that will begin shifting culture on their campuses. Wins such as UCLA’s commitment to 50% plant-based dining by 2027, Cornell University’s dropping of upcharges on plant-based milk, and Wagner College’s removal of surcharges on oat milk and plant-based sausages will impact a population of over 84,000 people on just these three campuses.
• New Roots Institute’s summer Leadership Academy accepted 120 fellows, with 40% of applicants coming from their classroom lessons. The program was refined to include 25 guest speakers in five distinct focus areas. Additionally, five of the program alumni are now teaching fellows, leading discussion groups, and providing support for the new class of fellows.

Positioning

• The New Roots Alumni Network grew to nearly 500 former fellows.
  • 17% are still enrolled in high school or college.
  • Of those in the workforce, nearly 50% are working in the nonprofit sector, 15% in government positions, and 18% in for-profit industries.

Sinergia Animal

$169,085 grant

Impact

• Sinergia Animal has celebrated one of their most impactful semesters yet. Highlights of these achievements are detailed in the 2024 Partial Progress One-Pager Report.

Corporate Engagement

• Sinergia’s campaigns and corporate engagement team has secured over 18 commitments to eliminate battery cages for hens and gestation crates for sows in seven different countries. Notable successes include: Subway Indonesia with 100 locations; Archipelago International, Southeast Asia’s largest private hotel management company with 165 locations in Indonesia; and Divino Fogão, Brazil, a restaurant chain with over 100 locations.

Institutional Diet Change

• Sinergia’s Nourishing Tomorrow Program has partnered with 24 educational and social institutions and catering companies in Argentina, Colombia, and Indonesia. These partnerships have the potential to remove animal products from over 1.5 million meals annually.
• Sinergia also hosted the annual Plant-Based Food: Health, Culture and Sustainability course, a free professional course on the benefits of plant-centered diets. Over 5,700 people registered, with 55% being health professionals.

Financial Institutions

• Sinergia’s team launched the annual Banks for Animals Project, monitoring the welfare policies of over 80 private banks. Eleven banks improved their credit criteria compared to the previous year.
• Additionally, the Stop Financing Factory Farming coalition celebrated a new World Bank report that encouraged wealthy and middle-income countries to cut meat and dairy subsidies and shift toward plant-centered diets and sustainable agriculture. The report noted that dietary shifts are about twice as cost-effective for mitigating climate change as reducing livestock production emissions.

Investigations

• Sinergia released four new undercover investigations, shedding light on the cruel realities faced by animals:
  • Two investigations exposed the conditions of caged hens in Latin America (1, 2).
  • One revealed the horrific cruelty in live animal auctions in Chile and Argentina.
  • One uncovered animal abuse in dairy farms supplying multinational company Danone in Brazil.

The Good Food Institute

$169,085 grant

• The Good Food Institute (GFI) advanced alternative proteins across science, policy, and industry while leveraging their resources to catalyze government and philanthropic support for the sector.
• GFI played a key role in CASA-Bio meetings (a National Science Foundation-led initiative advancing the U.S. bioeconomy) to identify mutual interests for a U.S. bioeconomy roadmap. After intensive discussions and stakeholder engagement, CASA-Bio established alternative proteins as one of their seven priority themes. GFI will work with CASA-Bio to orchestrate workshops to draft five-year research and development roadmaps for several areas, including Protein Diversification for Food, Health, and Environment.
• Following a rigorous global review conducted in partnership with GFI to identify research institutions best suited to address the major challenges and opportunities in alternative proteins, the Bezos Earth Fund announced that North Carolina State University, a leader in agricultural research, will host the first Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein. The $30 million investment signals a significant step forward in alternative protein science and addresses the critical need to diversify the global protein supply chain. This was followed by the launch of a second Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein at Imperial College London with an additional $30 million investment.
• GFI published the 2023 State of the Industry Reports, the most authoritative, open-access reviews of alternative proteins to date.
• GFI strategically deployed resources to respond to proposals and bills to ban cultivated meat or censor alternative protein labels. This critical work is ongoing.
• This spring, Illinois approved $5 million to expand the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a leading fermentation-based research facility that works closely with alternative protein companies. GFI has worked with Illinois lawmakers and academic leaders for years to advocate for additional public funding to support the university’s visionary alternative protein research and development.

Shrimp Welfare Project

$96,711 grant

Corporate Engagement

• As part of their Humane Slaughter Initiative, Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP) signed four new partnerships with shrimp producers, seafood suppliers, and retailers. This achievement allows SWP to improve the lives of an additional ~814,000,000 shrimps, reaching ~2,200,000,000 shrimps helped each year. Read more about SWP’s impact here.
• They launched their Eyestalk Ablation-Free Recognition webpage, which recognizes companies that have committed to eliminating eyestalk ablation from their supply chain. Major retailers have already made this commitment.

Farmer Support

• SWP’s India representatives undertook a small but crucial study in the village of Serepalem, India. They assessed the levels of Hydrogen Sulphide (H₂S) in shrimp ponds, a critical factor affecting the health and productivity of shrimp farms. In all samples, SWP found toxic levels of H₂S. Following this, they began to work on sludge removal to lower these levels.

Research

• They published a new scoping report titled Shrimp Paste and Animal Welfare, revealing the scale and welfare implications of the shrimp paste industry. From concerns about capture methods to processing practices, this report highlights the challenges and opportunities for promoting better methods and humane slaughter to reduce suffering.

Outreach

• Léa Guttmann, SWP’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Officer and Communications Lead, and Elisa Autric, Research Assistant at Rethink Priorities, discussed farmed shrimps on the French podcast Comme un poisson dans l’eau.
• SWP attended the Vegan Animal Rights Conference in Manchester (U.K.), Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona (Spain), The Animal & Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit in Washington DC (U.S.), and EA Global in London (U.K.).

The Humane League

$169,085 grant

• In February, more than 40% of hens in the U.S. were cage-free. That’s up from 13% since THL began this work in 2015—a change that spares more than 123 million hens from one of the cruelest practices on factory farms each year.
• In February, the Open Wing Alliance (OWA) administered $2,347,409 in grants to activists in 24 countries.
• Through reports like the Global Travel Report and The 2024 Eggsposé, THL is holding companies accountable to their cage-free promises. Thanks to pressure from THL, 43 global companies and 18 U.S. companies took action. THL estimates that this progress has spared over 2 million hens from suffering last year alone.
• The OWA released the 2024 Cage-Free Fulfillment Report, which found that 89% of corporate cage-free egg commitments with deadlines of 2023 or earlier have been fulfilled worldwide. This high fulfillment rate is in line with past years—a good sign that progress isn’t slowing.
• The Animal Policy Alliance supported several local legislative victories by providing members with policy analysis, strategic support, and grants.
  • Pasado’s Safe Haven passed a law in Washington State banning octopus farming.
  • Vegan Activist Alliance, Chilis on Wheels, and their partners persuaded the USDA to include more emphasis on plant-based eating in its child nutrition guidelines.
  • Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation passed a bill curtailing “sludge waste” from slaughterhouses.
  • Connecticut Votes for Animals defeated a cruel rabbit farming bill for the second time.
• The OWA launched a global campaign against Kewpie, the influential Japanese mayonnaise manufacturer. This continues THL’s focus on multinational companies headquartered in Asia, where around 68% of the world’s egg-laying hens live. THL estimates that a victory would spare 3.5 million hens from battery cages annually once implemented.

If you are inspired by these achievements and want to fuel more progress for animals, please donate to support ACE’s Recommended Charity Fund. Your gift today will help reduce animal suffering tomorrow. Thank you!

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