2024 compassion is our superpower

Behind closed doors, billions of animals are suffering inside factory farms. Their pain is hidden away, out of sight and out of mind. Helping them means taking on a multi-trillion dollar industry with near-endless resources at its disposal. But this year, you overcame unbelievable odds—and showed courage in the face of cruelty.

In 2024, you took on titans. Together with changemakers across the globe, you convinced one of the largest egg users in the world, Kewpie Corporation, to phase out cruel cages in Asia. You pressured the likes of Burger King, Popeyes, Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s, and more to do better for hens. You changed the lives of millions of animals, while reaching millions of hearts and minds.

An end to factory farming might feel like a dream, but together we’ve already achieved what the industry thought “impossible”—many times over. With bravery and heart, you’re rewriting the future for animals.

In 2009, over 96% of egg-laying hens in the US egg industry were trapped in “battery cages”—one of the cruelest inventions humans have ever inflicted on animals. They spent their whole lives unable to stretch their wings or lift their heads. Today, for the first time in history since the advent of factory farming, more than 40% of the hens in the US egg industry are now living outside of cages. That’s almost half of all the hens trapped in the US food system.

When hard-hitting reports like the 2024 Eggsposé and the Global Travel Report called out companies failing to share progress toward ending the extreme confinement of hens, supporters like you flooded companies with phone calls, emails, and protests. You pressured Krispy Kreme, Hyatt, Marriott, Dairy Queen, Campbell Soup, Tim Hortons, Rubio’s Coastal Grill, Louvre Hotels Group, and more to make meaningful progress for hens. (You were so unstoppable that Hilton caved to the pressure in just three days!)

This progress has the potential to spare over 67 million hens from cages. That’s thanks to you. Your compassion. Your dedication. Your vision. When the next generation looks back, you’ll be the reason why battery cages have been eliminated from the face of the planet.

In the United States, the Animal Policy Alliance (APA) grew to a coalition of 22 animal protection organizations in 14 states. This unstoppable league of animal defenders channels grassroots power to fight for policies that protect animals, not animal abusers.

And this year, advocates successfully passed first-of-their-kind laws to protect octopuses! In partnership with Animal Legal Defense Fund, APA members Social Compassion in Legislation, Animal Rights Initiative, Pasado’s Safe Haven, and Northwest Animal Rights Network banned octopus farming and the import of farmed octopuses in California and Washington State—protecting these remarkable beings from underwater factory farms.

As the pig industry continued fighting to overturn critical animal protection laws, supporters like you flooded legislators with messages all year long. You sent a powerful message to animal abusers: That we’ll keep fighting until no farmed animal suffers through life in a cage.

People from all walks of life are coming together to create a kinder world. This year, over 101,000 new supporters joined our community of changemakers—and took over 311,000 actions to hold corporations accountable for animal abuse.

In Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and beyond, residents are fighting back against the growing threat of factory farming across their state. From slaughterhouse workers to politicians, from veterinarians to members of the Cherokee Nation, they’re all uniting against a common enemy: industrialized animal agriculture.

This year, The Humane League released two documentaries: Common Enemy and Battleground. They tell stories of the immense harm caused by animal agriculture, and celebrate the resilience and tenacity of those tackling it head-on. People are fighting for clean water. For healthy land. And for the billions of animals who suffer in confined animal feeding operations each year.

Across countries and continents, advocates are fighting to create a kinder world for animals. In Africa, where 39.3% of hens are out of cages, advocates met in Kenya to develop a regional strategy to keep the battery cage out of the continent. In Europe, the majority of egg-laying hens are now living free from battery cages—reflecting years of progress from animal advocates, including The Humane League UK and the Open Wing Alliance (OWA). In Latin America, there’s steady progress for hens, with Brazil’s top two egg producers transitioning away from cages.

And in Asia, home to the majority of the world’s commercially farmed hens, cage-free momentum is building. The continent houses 63% of all egg-laying hens in the world, but only 1.5% of that flock lives outside of cages. With major Asia-based corporations Toridoll, Jollibee, and now Kewpie all making progress to end cages, the future is looking brighter for hens across the continent.

Around the world, it’s clear that the future is cage-free. And across different languages and cultures, it’s clear that humans agree: animals deserve to live free from abuse.

Through it all, we remained steadfast in our mission to end the abuse of animals raised for food. We have top ratings from Charity Navigator, Candid, and Charity Watch, and we’re honored to have been selected as a recommended charity by Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) since 2014.

Every year, ACE evaluates dozens of organizations around the world who are fighting to reduce the suffering of the greatest number of animals, and we’re proud to have been recognized as one of the top-performing charities in the world every single year that ACE has performed their evaluations. We’re committed to ensuring that every dollar goes as far as possible to help end the worst forms of animal cruelty on factory farms.

It’s thanks to you—your fearlessness, your relentless determination, and your compassion for animals—that we’ve been able to change the lives of millions of animals each year. Thank you for everything you did for the animals in 2024!