ARI was the first organization in the modern era to achieve an animal rights victory and it has remained one of the most successful in bringing about genuine structural change. ARI grew around a simple concept: that making the public aware of animal suffering is not enough. By turning words into action, real change is possible and animal suffering can be measurably reduced. ARI was founded in 1974 by the late Henry Spira, after he attended a course on “Animal Liberation” given by Peter Singer at New York University. At that time decades of loud protest by animal protectionists had achieved nothing. In fact, the numbers of animals used in research during the previous 50 years had climbed steadily from thousands into the tens of millions. If a modern animal rights movement was to grow and move forward, a victory was a fundamental and psychological necessity. To read how this victory was achieved and how subsequent campaigns led to the phasing out of the Draize rabbit-blinding test, the creation of "cruelty-free" products, the elimination of the classic LD50 death test and other campaigns, including the outlawing of face branding by the USDA, click here

Calf photo at top copyright Compassion in World Farming (www.ciwf.org)