The Animal Rights National Conference is an annual conference in the United States. Started in 1981 under a different name, since 2000 it has been organized by

Farm Animal Rights Movement Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) is an international nonprofit organization working to promote a vegan lifestyle and animal rights through public education and grass roots outreach.

(FARM).

History

In the 1970s,

Alex Hershaft Alex Hershaft (born 1 July 1934) is an American Holocaust survivor, and co-founder and president of the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), the United States' oldest (1976) organization devoted exclusively to promoting the rights of animals no ...

started noticing that animal rights people were attending his vegetarian conferences. After discussing with them and doing more reading on the subject, in 1981 he organized Action for Life, a joining of the vegetarian and animal rights movements, and launched a series of annual conferences. These conferences were held annually for seven years (1981–1987) and typically included training sessions for activists, networking, ceremonial activities, video showings, and open discussions. The conferences helped spawn other animal rights organizations with different focuses, including

(Hershaft's organization),

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; ) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and animal rights ...

, Trans-Species Unlimited, Mobilization for Animals, and Animal Rights Network. Peter Linck of the National Alliance for Animals had also been holding conferences in the 1980s, and those became the successors to the Action for Life conferences from 1988 to 1996. In 1997, FARM stepped up to again organize the national conferences, alternating between east and west coast venues. In 2004, after the prosecution of a few animal rights activists as terrorists, the

Humane Society of the United States Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Humane Society International (HSI), is a global nonprofit organization that focuses on animal welfare and opposes animal-related cruelties of national scop ...

and a few other animal protection groups withdrew their support for these conferences as they didn't want to advocate for violence. Those organizations formed their own annual conferences under the name "Taking Action for Animals". Likewise, Direct Action Everywhere hosts the Animal Liberation Conference. In 2018, Alex Hershaft retired as Conference Chair. Jen Riley took on the post of Conference Chair and organizes the conferences along with Ethan Eldreth as Program Manager and a newly formed Program Advisory Committee.

Conferences

, a typical conference involves "2,000 attendees representing 90 organizations from a dozen countries, with 100 exhibitors and 170 speakers presenting in 80 sessions."

Animal Rights Hall of Fame

Elected by the speakers of each annual conference, individuals who have made outstanding contributions towards animal rights in the US are inducted into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame. Previous winners include: * 2000:

Cleveland Amory Cleveland Amory (September 2, 1917 – October 14, 1998) was an American author, reporter, television critic, commentator and animal rights activist. He wrote a series of popular books poking fun at the pretensions and customs of society, start ...

Howard Lyman Howard F. Lyman (born September 18, 1938, in Great Falls, Montana) is an American farmer and animal rights activist known for promoting vegan nutrition and organic farming. In 1997 he was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for hi ...

Ingrid Newkirk Ingrid Elizabeth Newkirk (née Ward; born June 11, 1949) is a British-American animal activist, author and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization. Newkirk founded PETA ...

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher who is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's work specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secu ...

Henry Spira Henry Spira (19 June 1927 – 12 September 1998) was an American activist for socialism and animal rights, who is regarded by some as one of the most effective animal advocates of the 20th century.Singer, in Spira and Singer 2006, pp. 214–215. ...

* 2001: Gene Baur,

Lorri Houston Lorri Houston (aka Lorri Bauston) is a pioneer for the farm animal sanctuary movement. Houston has been an animal rights researcher, activist, and a vegan for most of her life. She co-founded the Farm Sanctuary in 1986 and founded Animal Acres in ...

, Jim Mason, Alex Pacheco * 2002: Karen Davis, Shirley McGreal,

Paul Watson Paul Franklin Watson (born December 2, 1950) is a Canadian-American environmental, conservation and animal rights activist, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching and direct action group focused on marine conserva ...

* 2003: Rodney Coronado, Elliot Katz * 2004: Bruce Friedrich, Laura Moretti * 2005:

Matt Ball Matthew Michael Ball (born 1968) is an American animal activist. He is co-founder and President of One Step for Animals. Previously, he was Director of Engagement and Outreach at Farm Sanctuary, and before that, Senior Advisor for VegFund. In ...

, Jack Norris,

Gretchen Wyler Gretchen Wyler (born Gretchen Patricia Wienecke; February 16, 1932 – May 27, 2007) was an American actress and dancer. She was also an animal rights advocate and founder of the Genesis Awards for animal protection. Biography Early lif ...

* 2006:

Steve Hindi Steven Omar Hindi (born ) is an American animal rights activist and businessman. He is the founder and president of the animal rights organization Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK). Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Hindi grew up in a hunti ...

, Ben White * 2007:

Kevin Kjonaas Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Europe's largest contract Animal testing, animal-testing laboratory. HLS tested medical and non-medical substances o ...

, James Laveck, Jenny Stein * 2008: Paul Shapiro * 2009: Nathan Runkle * 2010: Zoe Weil * 2011: Carol J. Adams * 2012: Joe Connelly and Colleen Holland * 2013: Erica Meier * 2014: Jon Camp * 2015:

Josh Balk Josh Balk (born September 24, 1979) is an American activist, CEO of The Accountability Board, which he co-founded. Previously, he was vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) farm animal division ...

* 2016:

Tom Regan Tom Regan (; November 28, 1938 – February 17, 2017) was an American philosopher who specialized in animal rights theory. He was professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, where he had taught from 1967 until his r ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Animal Rights National Conference Animal rights movement Animal rights organizations Recurring events established in 2000