Animal Aid is a British
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...
organisation, founded in 1977 by Jean Pink. The group campaigns peacefully against the consumption of animals as food and against animal cruelty such as their use for medical research—and promotes a
cruelty-free
In the animal rights movement, cruelty-free is a label for products or activities that do not harm or kill animals anywhere in the world. Products animal testing, tested on animals or made from animals are not considered cruelty-free, since these ...
lifestyle. It also investigates and exposes animal abuse.
Animal Aid conducts undercover investigations, produces campaign reports,
leaflets and fact files, as well as educational videos and other resources. They also offer a quarterly magazine and a sales catalogue with vegan and cruelty-free products.
Aims and objectives
Animal Aid was founded in January 1977 to work, by all peaceful means, for an end to animal cruelty. The organisation is a
not-for-profit
A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives.
While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...
limited company
In a limited company, the Legal liability, liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a c ...
run by a volunteer council of management. It has not applied to be a charity so that it is able to use its funds for sometimes controversial campaigns.
Founding
Animal Aid was established by primary school teacher Jean Pink in 1977 after borrowing
Peter Singer's book,
''Animal Liberation'', from her local library in
Tonbridge
Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Mall ...
. Despite not having any experience of campaining, Pink felt that she needed to do something and advertised for others who felt similarily. Soon a small group symapthetic to animal rights began to meet in Pink's kitchen. Initially, the group used a hand duplicator to create leaflets which they would distribute in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.The organisation rapidly grew in size in its initial years, with Pink giving up teaching to focus on it. In 1984 Pink left the organisation. Pink died on 8 February 2025.
Campaigns
Animal Aid campaigns include:
* Slaughter: Animal Aid uses hidden cameras to film in UK slaughterhouses. It has filmed inside sixteen British slaughterhouses, finding evidence of lawbreaking in most of them. Following Animal Aid's CCTV campaign, all the major supermarket chains agreed to insist that their suppliers fit CCTV cameras in their slaughterhouses. Animal Aid campaigns for mandatory independently monitored CCTV in all UK slaughterhouses.
* Horse racing: This aims for an end to commercial horse racing, and as a first step, a ban on the use of the whip except for safety purposes. The investigation was featured in a 2021
BBC Panorama
''Panorama'' is a British current affairs documentary programme broadcast on the BBC. First broadcast in 1953, it is the world's longest-running television news magazine programme.
''Panorama'' has been presented by many well-known BBC presen ...
programme, The Dark Side of Horse Racing.
* Game bird shooting: Animal Aid campaigns for an end to the production and shooting of animals for pleasure. Some 50 million pheasants and partridges are intensively farmed every year so that they can be released and shot for sport.
See also
*
Animal ethics
Animal ethics is a branch of ethics which examines human-animal relationships, the moral consideration of animals and how nonhuman animals ought to be treated. The subject matter includes animal rights, animal welfare, animal law, speciesism, an ...
*
List of animal rights groups
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1977 establishments in the United Kingdom
Anti-vivisection organizations
British animal rights organizations
Organizations established in 1977