Difference between revisions of "Methods of Vegan Activism"
(→Donation to Effective Charities) |
|||
| (4 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 8: | Line 8: | ||
This is probably the most cost effective thing the average person can do, that is, if they give their money to the right charities. The vast majority of money donated to animal charities tend to go to animals that the average person likes more than farmed animals, namely cats and dogs. For the average Vegan who cares about animals whose suffering is oft neglected, namely animals on farms, there are dozens of charities that can help reduce the suffering. | This is probably the most cost effective thing the average person can do, that is, if they give their money to the right charities. The vast majority of money donated to animal charities tend to go to animals that the average person likes more than farmed animals, namely cats and dogs. For the average Vegan who cares about animals whose suffering is oft neglected, namely animals on farms, there are dozens of charities that can help reduce the suffering. | ||
| − | The best evaluator for farmed animal-charities is Animal Charity Evaluators. They recommend charities that help animals in all sorts of ways, such as improving welfare on farms, lobbying for animal rights, developing Vegan alternatives, and helping get others to reduce consumption of animal products. All of these are extremely helpful and worthwhile avenues to help, and are all pretty high impact per dollar. For example, one dollar to the Humane League on average helps improve animal welfare for a dozen animals. One dollar to Dansk Vegetarisk Foreneing replaces seven meat based meals with Vegan ones. One dollar to the Good Food Fund influences an expected two and a half people. | + | The best evaluator for farmed animal-charities is Animal Charity Evaluators. They recommend charities that help animals in all sorts of ways, such as improving welfare on farms, lobbying for animal rights, developing Vegan alternatives, and helping get others to reduce consumption of animal products. All of these are extremely helpful and worthwhile avenues to help, and are all pretty high impact per dollar. For example, one dollar to the Humane League on average helps improve animal welfare for a dozen animals. One dollar to Dansk Vegetarisk Foreneing replaces seven meat based meals with Vegan ones. One dollar to the Good Food Fund influences an expected two and a half people. |
| + | |||
| + | There have been criticisms of Animal Charity Evaluators, and while some of them may be valid, as it stands, there currently isn't any other charity evaluator for effective altruists to reference for donations that focus on animals. Even if their methodolody isn't completely rigorous, they research their charities thoroughly and study the programs of each charity, so the conclusions they come up with aren't just hunches. At any rate, given how charities for farmed animals get such little funding; Currently, besides the Humane League, every charity they evaluate or reccommend have annual budgets of a few million dollars. To put that into perspective, Doctors Without Borders had a 2024 budget of two and a half ''billion'' US dollars.<ref>https://www.msf.org/international-activity-report-2024</ref> Even looking at other effective-altruist charities reccomended by sites like GiveWell, the Against Malaria Foundation had a 2024 budget of nearly ninety million dollars, with tons more left in reserves.<ref>https://www.againstmalaria.com/Downloads/AMF_Accounts_Global_2025.pdf</ref> Given how underfunded farmed animal charities are, your dollar would go much further in terms of allieviating suffering. On each charity's ACE page, it lists how much room for more funding they have, which ranges from several hundred thousand dollars to tens of millions, even for a well-funded charity such as the Humane League. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The math is pretty astounding. As mentioned before, one dollar to an effective animal charity can potentially help dozens of animals. So a thousand dollars to an ACE charity would help thousands, whereas donatinga thousand to a dog shelter may only help one dog. | ||
=Contacting Companies and Digital Activism= | =Contacting Companies and Digital Activism= | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Voting and Political Participation== | ||
| + | This in theory is very effective, but animal rights and welfare for farmed animals as a political issue is extremely limited in most countries. While a topic for another time, political activism generally has mixed results, even for issues that are more front and center in discourse. For animal rights especially, political activism is not very effective and should not be your main method of helping animals (especially when we consider the possibility of making it a polarizing issue), but it can be useful as a side tactic. | ||
| + | |||
| + | This comes in a similar form to contacting companies. Calling up or emailing your local representatives asking asking them once a week to consider supporting legislation dedicated to improving welfare on farms, or reducing subsidies for agriculture. Also, when a bill that is making rounds that would certainly be terrible for animals, farmed or not, calling or emailing your representatives would be more impactful while it's being deliberated. | ||
=Discussions with Family, Friends, and Acquaintances= | =Discussions with Family, Friends, and Acquaintances= | ||
Latest revision as of 19:34, 7 January 2026
It is often said that Veganism is the least we can do for the animals. For many people after being Vegan for a few months, it'll start to feel as though just making a dietary change is not enough, and the urge to start doing good on top of that kicks in. It can be a bit tricky, because people tend to be unsure of how exactly to help. Newer, younger vegans often gravitate towards more provocative and "in your face" approaches to animal rights activism, but the effectiveness of these strategies tend to be dubious.
This article will present a list of things the average Vegan can do to help out more animals beyond the ones that are being spared suffering thanks to their choices to stop eating those animals and their products. None of these options will necessarily involve significant time or money investments, and are often things that can be done either by dedicating an hour or so week, or come passively when you're just going about your daily life.
There will be some overlap with a few items on the list of things to do to reduce your carbon footprint. Despite the overlap, that article is more in discussion with minimizing your carbon footprint, while here it'll discuss ways of maximizing the good you do for animals. Since they generally will result in fewer animals being bred and slaughtered, it by extension reduces carbon emissions as well.
Contents
Donation to Effective Charities
This is probably the most cost effective thing the average person can do, that is, if they give their money to the right charities. The vast majority of money donated to animal charities tend to go to animals that the average person likes more than farmed animals, namely cats and dogs. For the average Vegan who cares about animals whose suffering is oft neglected, namely animals on farms, there are dozens of charities that can help reduce the suffering.
The best evaluator for farmed animal-charities is Animal Charity Evaluators. They recommend charities that help animals in all sorts of ways, such as improving welfare on farms, lobbying for animal rights, developing Vegan alternatives, and helping get others to reduce consumption of animal products. All of these are extremely helpful and worthwhile avenues to help, and are all pretty high impact per dollar. For example, one dollar to the Humane League on average helps improve animal welfare for a dozen animals. One dollar to Dansk Vegetarisk Foreneing replaces seven meat based meals with Vegan ones. One dollar to the Good Food Fund influences an expected two and a half people.
There have been criticisms of Animal Charity Evaluators, and while some of them may be valid, as it stands, there currently isn't any other charity evaluator for effective altruists to reference for donations that focus on animals. Even if their methodolody isn't completely rigorous, they research their charities thoroughly and study the programs of each charity, so the conclusions they come up with aren't just hunches. At any rate, given how charities for farmed animals get such little funding; Currently, besides the Humane League, every charity they evaluate or reccommend have annual budgets of a few million dollars. To put that into perspective, Doctors Without Borders had a 2024 budget of two and a half billion US dollars.[1] Even looking at other effective-altruist charities reccomended by sites like GiveWell, the Against Malaria Foundation had a 2024 budget of nearly ninety million dollars, with tons more left in reserves.[2] Given how underfunded farmed animal charities are, your dollar would go much further in terms of allieviating suffering. On each charity's ACE page, it lists how much room for more funding they have, which ranges from several hundred thousand dollars to tens of millions, even for a well-funded charity such as the Humane League.
The math is pretty astounding. As mentioned before, one dollar to an effective animal charity can potentially help dozens of animals. So a thousand dollars to an ACE charity would help thousands, whereas donatinga thousand to a dog shelter may only help one dog.
Contacting Companies and Digital Activism
Voting and Political Participation
This in theory is very effective, but animal rights and welfare for farmed animals as a political issue is extremely limited in most countries. While a topic for another time, political activism generally has mixed results, even for issues that are more front and center in discourse. For animal rights especially, political activism is not very effective and should not be your main method of helping animals (especially when we consider the possibility of making it a polarizing issue), but it can be useful as a side tactic.
This comes in a similar form to contacting companies. Calling up or emailing your local representatives asking asking them once a week to consider supporting legislation dedicated to improving welfare on farms, or reducing subsidies for agriculture. Also, when a bill that is making rounds that would certainly be terrible for animals, farmed or not, calling or emailing your representatives would be more impactful while it's being deliberated.
