Activities and Accomplishments
in 2019
Animals Now is wrapping up a year full of exciting, intensive activities to promote animal rights.
We are happy to share a brief, non-exhaustive summary of the activities in our key projects.
Legislation and Policy
Animals Now works to establish animal-friendly policies. Our representatives initiate bill proposals and political processes, participate in Knesset (Israeli Parliament) symposiums, and present information and data to Knesset members, ministers and government officials across the political spectrum.
Elections Project
- “Political Animal” Panel: Animals Now partnered with Vegan Friendly and other organizations to organize a political panel which included candidates from six political parties, and was held in front of an audience of 350 people. Candidates from across the political spectrum called to end live transports and to transfer the Animal Protection Act from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
- We Initiated Media Coverage: Ynet asked the political parties about their stances regarding the protection of animals, Haaretz surveyed the central issues on the topic, Walla published a list of vegetarian and vegan politicians, and the panel was covered by some of Israel’s biggest media channels including Channel 20, Haolam Haboker, Israel Hayom, Globes, Maariv, 102fm, Kan B, Israel Social TV and more.
- With your help, over 40,000 emails were sent to party leaders, calling on them to support moves in favor of animal protection.
- We started a political engagement group which encourages activists to attend meetings with politicians and participate in Knesset discussions. Ahead of the elections, activists participated in 46 events of 41 politicians from eight political parties.
The Campaign Against Live Transport
- Legislative Campaigns: After the bill promoted by Animals Now won governmental support and passed in the preliminary reading in the 20th Knesset, five bills on the matter have been resubmitted in the 21st and 22nd Knessets. Unfortunately, Israel’s current political instability has prevented progress being made with the legislations, but despite this challenge, we’ve succeeded in keeping the issue on the politicians’ agendas.
- We ran over 30 press stories about live transports.
- On Stop Live Transport: International Awareness Day, we held a protest outside Tel Aviv Government Complex. We also organized a mass demonstration outside the Australian Embassy, as well as a series of other protests.
- Over 43,000 people have already signed our petition against live transports.
The Campaign to End Chicken Cages
- We submitted a position paper to Knesset Members demanding an end to all public funding for cages in the egg industry, and calls to outlaw the confinement of hens in cages.
We are working in collaboration with Let the Animals Live, Hai Meshek, and the Clinic for Environmental Justice and Animal Rights at Tel Aviv University. - We joined Open Wing Alliance, an international coalition active in over 60 countries which work together to end the use of cages in the egg industry.
25 Years of the Animal Protection Act
- We are currently composing a comprehensive report covering 25 years of the Animal Protection Act which indicates flaws in implementation of the law, and offers policy measures to promote the protection of animals - chiefly, transferring the jurisdiction over enforcement and execution of the Animal Protection Act from the Ministry of Agriculture, and consolidation them under the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
- We sent the State Comptroller a letter detailing shortcomings in the implementation of the Animal Protection Act.
Undercover Investigations
- The Dark Side of Shawarma: The Animals Now investigation team conducted a groundbreaking, comprehensive investigation into industrial turkey coops and documented serious abuse. Following the complaints we submitted, the Ministry of Agriculture started an investigation. The footage was exposed in an extended report on the main news edition of “Kan” TV. We produced a social media campaign that reached over 700,000 views, featuring a video about the investigation findings starring Gadi Sukenik, and a video on the issue of Kashrut with Rabbi Shabtai Rappaport of Bar Ilan University. There was also an article about the investigation published in Haaretz, an article in “Behadrei Hareidim”, and radio segments.
- Documentation in Industrial Fish Farms: We exposed a series of documentations of mass mortality in industrial fish farms. Some of the footage was published on the media, and we submitted complaints to the Ministry of Agriculture (with the help of the Clinic for Environmental Justice and Animal Rights at Tel Aviv University). Additionally, footage from the investigation we conducted at Israel’s largest fish farms was published by PETA and received international exposure.
- We documented live transport vessels from Australia arriving at the port of Eilat, after a long period in which the live transport industry tried to hide the unloading of animals at the port. The rare footage was published in Israel Hayom.
- Fighting to bring abusers to justice: The Ministry of Agriculture decided to close the investigation files that were opened following investigations we conducted into the Haifa, Dabbach and Zoglowek slaughterhouses. Animals Now and Let the Animals Live are continuing the legal battle to prosecute animal abusers - we filed appeals in the Dabbach and Haifa cases, and a petition to the High Court in the Zoglowek case.
- Fighting against Zoglowek’s silencing lawsuit: Last year, Zoglowek sued Animals Now and eight of our associates over the satirical logo we created as a spoof on the company’s logo. The logo, which stated that the company abused animals, appears on our website page about investigations into Zoglowek. We proudly took on the lawsuit to assert our right to expose animal abuse and call it by its name. The court recently ordered the lawsuit to be dismissed. Our thanks to the attorneys Omer Carmel and Sahar Peled, who represented the organization pro bono.
- The slaughterhouses are paying up: Following the class action lawsuits filed following Animals Now investigations, Zoglowek will pay 1.5 million ILS to a fund dedicated to animal protection initiatives; Dabah will pay 1.2 million ILS to the fund; and the Miliof and Of Hagalil slaughterhouses have been ordered to pay public damages.
Undercover Investigations
- The Dark Side of Shawarma: The Animals Now investigation team conducted a groundbreaking, comprehensive investigation into industrial turkey coops and documented serious abuse. Following the complaints we submitted, the Ministry of Agriculture started an investigation. The footage was exposed in an extended report on the main news edition of “Kan” TV. We produced a social media campaign that reached over 700,000 views, featuring a video about the investigation findings starring Gadi Sukenik, and a video on the issue of Kashrut with Rabbi Shabtai Rappaport of Bar Ilan University. There was also an article about the investigation published in Haaretz, an article in “Behadrei Hareidim”, and radio segments.
- Documentation in Industrial Fish Farms: We exposed a series of documentations of mass mortality in industrial fish farms. Some of the footage was published on the media, and we submitted complaints to the Ministry of Agriculture (with the help of the Clinic for Environmental Justice and Animal Rights at Tel Aviv University). Additionally, footage from the investigation we conducted at Israel’s largest fish farms was published by PETA and received international exposure.
- We documented live transport vessels from Australia arriving at the port of Eilat, after a long period in which the live transport industry tried to hide the unloading of animals at the port. The rare footage was published in Israel Hayom.
- Fighting to bring abusers to justice: The Ministry of Agriculture decided to close the investigation files that were opened following investigations we conducted into the Haifa, Dabbach and Zoglowek slaughterhouses. Animals Now and Let the Animals Live are continuing the legal battle to prosecute animal abusers - we filed appeals in the Dabbach and Haifa cases, and a petition to the High Court in the Zoglowek case.
- Fighting against Zoglowek’s silencing lawsuit: Last year, Zoglowek sued Animals Now and eight of our associates over the satirical logo we created as a spoof on the company’s logo. The logo, which stated that the company abused animals, appears on our website page about investigations into Zoglowek. We proudly took on the lawsuit to assert our right to expose animal abuse and call it by its name. The court recently ordered the lawsuit to be dismissed. Our thanks to the attorneys Omer Carmel and Sahar Peled, who represented the organization pro bono.
- The slaughterhouses are paying up: Following the class action lawsuits filed following Animals Now investigations, Zoglowek will pay 1.5 million ILS to a fund dedicated to animal protection initiatives; Dabah will pay 1.2 million ILS to the fund; and the Miliof and Of Hagalil slaughterhouses have been ordered to pay public damages.
Media and Social Networks
- Animals Now’s spokesmanship ran over 160 press stories this year across all media outlets - from TV news and magazines to local newspapers.
- The Animals Now Facebook page reached over 65 million exposures. You’re also invited to follow us on Instagram.
- Our social media team produced more than 170 videos that were viewed on social networks, including new series on the Animals Now Youtube channel that disseminate information about animals and the vegan lifestyle.
- Our established recipe and restaurant website, veg.co.il, has had almost 1 million visitors and over 4 million page views since the beginning of the year. Across our leading sites, we had more than 1.5 million visitors and more than 6 million page views.
- “#Let_Fish_Swim”: This is the third year of Animals Now’s project to raise awareness about fish ahead of the Jewish New Year. We produced and published a series of videos and posts about the natural behaviors of fish, their capacity for suffering and their intelligence, memory and communication, as well as their abuse in the fishing industry, industrial fish farms, and marine farming. The project reached around 10 million exposures on social media networks.
- We also launched a comprehensive website about the farmed salmon industry (the source of 98% of the salmon in Israel; salmon constitute one fifth of fish consumption in Israel). The site includes extensive data about the suffering farms cause to the fish, the health risks of consuming farmed fish, the environmental destruction caused by salmon cages, and the Kashrut problems that arise due to the abundant parasites found in farmed salmon.
Challenge 22
- Over 80,000 participants undertook Challenge 22 this year, 14,000 of which were from Israel (more than 1,000 per month)! Since the inception of the project, 330,000 men and women have signed up in Israel and worldwide.
- We launched Challenge 22 in Spanish - we recruited Spanish speaking counselors and nutritionists, translated the Project guide, advertised the project, collaborated with influencers, and guided thousands of participants.
- We launched a Challenge 22 program in the UK.
- Challenge 22 Community is a unique program for guiding organizations to develop local vegan Challenges. In 2019 we worked with the Sinergia organization on the Challenge 22 Thailand; with Desafio Vegetariano which developed a program based on Challenge 22 in Portugal; we began collaborating with Vegetariano Shoy on Challenge 22 Chile; and with the organization FREE on Challenge 22 Romania which will be launched soon. Anima, which we helped launch Challenge 22 in Denmark, has duplicated the program for six additional countries (Poland, Estonia, Norway, Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia).
- We conducted a survey on the project’s effectiveness and achieved excellent results: 72.5% of the meat eaters that go through the program either become vegan or dramatically reduce their meat consumption (the findings were published on Faunalytics).
- We participated in a large animal rights conference in Washington, where we did a presentation on Challenge 22. We conducted monthly grassroots activities in the US, Canada and the UK. In New Zealand, Challenge activists put up billboards advertising Challenge 22.
Grassroots Activities
- We organize an average 30 activities every month, and in 2019 we organized 360 activities across the country.
- We operate 11 local chapters and student groups: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beer Sheva, Haifa, Petah Tikva, Krayot, Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, Ben Gurion University, Technion and Tel Hai College.
- In the last year, 3,000 people signed up for Challenge 22 through our grassroots activities (more than double the amount from last year)! We also convinced 3,350 people to reduce their animal sourced food consumption and we raised awareness of thousands more about the topic.
- Our amazing activists invested 5,300 volunteer hours.
- We participated in 28 large-scale events this year: pride parades, climate marches, festivals, conferences and more.
- We organized 9 demonstrations and protests against live transport!
- We organized 3 meet-ups for all our activists - a TED talk evening, a pool party and a Lag BaOmer Picnic
She Needs You Now
Your donation will help end their suffering