Mercy for Animals

Pigs, cows, chickens, fish, and other animals raised for food suffer miserably on modern farms. Animal cruelty laws that protect dogs and cats specifically exclude farmed animals from most protection. As a result, blatant abuse is now standard practice on farms both large and small.

Picked as a top 3 charity by animal charity evaluators, Mercy For Animals (MFA) engages in a variety of farmed animal advocacy programs, often involving filming or promoting footage from their undercover investigations of factory farms. MFA also engages in legal work and corporate campaigns on behalf of animals, and they conduct grassroots outreach designed to change individuals’ attitudes and behavior towards farmed animals.

MFA has a long record of success in carrying out undercover investigations and following through on the additional avenues for influence they provide. While undercover investigations can be risky and logistically complicated to carry out, they often receive significant media coverage and thus can influence a very large number of people. Additionally, they offer avenues for corporate outreach and legal advocacy and provide photos and videos that can be used in other forms of outreach. We believe that MFA has the ability to use additional funds to conduct more investigations, although not in the U.S.

MFA’s approach to consumer outreach has a relatively high expected effectiveness compared to other work in that area, especially considering their shift in focus from local outreach to online campaigns a few years ago. We believe this shift was motivated by a solid understanding of the areas in which MFA was best placed to have success, in light of the experience MFA’s team has in this area.