Animals Now

Animals Now identifies five core areas of work: undercover investigations exposing cruelty in factory farms, legal action to protect animals from abuse, the Challenge 22 vegan-adoption program, education intended to nurture compassion among younger generations, and grassroots outreach to raise public awareness.[1] Its campaigns have addressed cages in the egg industry, live shipments of livestock, fur sales, animal experimentation in research and schools, and exploitative circus performances.[2]

The organization also works within corporate supply chains. Its 2024 report said it collaborated with 90 organizations through the Open Wing Alliance and supported businesses transitioning toward cage-free egg sourcing.[3] Spokesperson Amos Bar has argued that intensive animal agriculture contributes to greenhouse-gas emissions, deforestation, and habitat loss, framing animal rights and veganism as connected to the climate crisis.[4]

Animals Now was established in Israel in 1994 as Anonymous for Animal Rights (Hebrew: אנונימוס).[1] Its earliest activity grew from a small volunteer group operating out of a former fur shop on Ben-Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv.[2] The organization operated under its former name for 25 years before unveiling its new identity at a Tel Aviv event attended by approximately 200 activists and supporters.[2]

The decision to change the name reflected two practical concerns: the public did not sufficiently associate the word "Anonymous" with animal advocacy, and the name caused confusion with the international political hacking collective.[2] The rebranding process lasted approximately one year and drew on surveys and professional advisers. A black logo depicting several animals was replaced by a purple logo featuring a lamb embraced by a human hand, imagery the organization described as conveying compassion and protection rather than excessive militancy.[2]

The 2019 rebranding report described Animals Now's revenue model as based entirely on donations and placed its annual budget at approximately NIS 3–3.5 million. It also reported approximately 150,000 Facebook followers.[2] Animals Now, Inc. was later founded in the United States to broaden the organization's international reach. The organizations are legally separate and each controls its own funds; references to campaign activities before August 2022 generally concern the Israeli and Middle Eastern organization.[1]

Challenge 22 is Animals Now's international program for helping participants adopt a vegan lifestyle over 22 days, supported by volunteer mentors and professional clinical dietitians.[1] It operates in 12 languages. Animals Now reported that the program surpassed one million total participants in 2024 and accompanied more than 175,000 people through its Spanish, Israeli, and international tracks that year. Its related Challenge 22 Community project worked with eight organizations in different countries and reached more than 90,000 additional participants.[3]

Animals Now reported that its educational programs reached approximately 200 schools, youth movements, and youth villages in 2024, engaging more than 34,000 teenagers and training 620 educational staff members. Its Live Act educational website was used by approximately 110,000 people.[3] The organization also reported managing more than 25 websites that reached over 1.9 million users, approximately 5.5 million people reached and 100 million visits across Facebook and Instagram, more than 3 million YouTube views, and roughly 18 million TikTok views during the year.[3]

Animals Now has conducted several undercover investigations into conditions at Israeli slaughterhouses. In 2012, journalist and animal-rights activist Ronen Bar worked for 19 days at the Adom Adom slaughterhouse, operated by Tnuva in Beit She'an, using a hidden camera.[5] The footage showed workers shocking, beating, standing on, and dragging cattle. After the investigation was broadcast, Animals Now and Let the Animals Live filed a police complaint. Two slaughter-line employees served sentences through community service, while two managers were convicted of animal-abuse offenses in the Nazareth Magistrate's Court.[5]

A subsequent investigation focused on a slaughterhouse in Haifa. Following publication of the findings, the Ministry of Agriculture prohibited the facility from operating for approximately two and a half weeks and later restricted its slaughter volume.[6] Animals Now and Let the Animals Live petitioned the High Court of Justice to close the slaughterhouse, revoke the authorization of its supervising veterinarians, and implement a mandatory camera program in slaughterhouses. The Haifa District Prosecution ultimately closed the criminal investigation after reviewing the evidence, and the organizations said they intended to appeal.[6]

Opposition to live shipments of livestock to Israel has been one of Animals Now's sustained campaigns. In 2019, after a dead calf washed onto a Tel Aviv beach, the organization said that ships carrying livestock sometimes dumped sick or wounded animals into the sea, in some cases while the animals were still alive.[7] The accompanying report stated that approximately 685,000 calves and lambs had been shipped to Israel in 2018, compared with approximately 500,000 in 2017.[7]

A 2020 organizational review said live shipments continued despite repeated government promises to reduce them, with nearly 700,000 animals shipped during the year covered by the report.[8] In 2022, 925,440 lambs and calves were transported to Israel, representing an increase of more than 500% over the preceding decade.[9] During the first half of 2023, 502,493 lambs and calves arrived at Israeli ports, including 69,871 transferred to the Palestinian Authority, an approximately 8% decline from the corresponding period in 2022.[9]

Animals Now's 2020 review called for transferring responsibility for animal-welfare enforcement from the Agriculture Ministry to the Environmental Protection Ministry. It argued that a potential conflict existed because the Agriculture Ministry both oversees animal-welfare inspections and promotes the agricultural industry.[8]

Animals Now dates its campaign against battery cages in Israel's egg industry to 2007, when the government proposed investing public funds in egg-industry infrastructure that would include new battery cages.[10] The organization took the issue to court and says the Supreme Court issued an interlocutory injunction in November 2009 postponing the reform until proper chicken-welfare regulations were approved.[10]

The organization later conducted a covert investigation at a poultry facility in southern Israel, filming hens kept in severe crowding and unable to move or spread their wings, with legs injured by metal bars.[11] The resulting campaign included a billboard in Jerusalem, advertisements across 350 bus stops and buses in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and a radio advertisement.[11] An October 2020 survey cited by Animals Now found that 89% of respondents believed Israel should ban chicken cages.[10]

Animals Now says it worked with Agriculture Minister Oded Forer and Knesset members Sharren Haskel and Yasmin Fridman before draft regulations were published for public consultation in February 2022.[10] A parliamentary committee approved the regulations on June 20, 2022. They prohibited the construction or conversion of new caged facilities and required existing operations to transition to cage-free housing. Battery cages providing 350 square centimeters per hen received a three-year transition period, initially with a possible two-year extension in special cases, while cages providing 600 or 750 square centimeters per hen received 15 years.[10] Animals Now's 2024 report said the deadline for the smallest battery cages was subsequently extended by an additional two years.[3]

Animals Now traces its campaign against the fur trade to weekly demonstrations outside fur stores on Ben-Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv during the early 1990s. It opened an action center in a former fur-store location on the same street in 1995.[12] The organization later campaigned against the Castro fashion chain in 2005 and participated in legislative efforts in the Knesset between 2009 and 2010, coordinating with 70 organizations through the International Anti-Fur Coalition.[12]

Animals Now met with Gila Gamliel, then minister of environmental protection, in June 2020, after which she published draft regulations banning fur sales. Gamliel signed the regulations in early June 2021, with exceptions for religious and research purposes.[12] Animals Now describes Israel as the first country in the world to prohibit fur sales. It also reported that the High Court dismissed an industry petition against the regulations in 2023 and characterized the court's decision as recognizing social benefits that included reducing animal suffering, promoting compassion, and discouraging exploitation for profit.[13]

Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack, Animals Now reported rescuing hundreds of animals from conflict zones, including chickens, turkeys, goats, dogs, and cats, and transferring them to sanctuaries, foster families, and permanent homes.[13] The organization also reported mobilizing more than 200 volunteers and 30 businesses to deliver thousands of hot vegan meals to survivors, families of hostages, reserve forces, and displaced people.[13]

Animals Now presents the end of goose and duck force-feeding, restrictions on the use of wild animals in circuses, the fur-sale regulations, and the transition away from cages in the egg industry as major achievements associated with its advocacy.[1] Contemporary reporting also connected the organization with campaigns to reduce animal experimentation in research and schools and with the eventual prohibition of goose fattening in Israel.[2]

Marking its thirtieth anniversary in 2024, Animals Now said that its work had included undercover investigations, hundreds of thousands of lectures, educational campaigns, grassroots activism, and international vegan outreach.[3] Its activities combine individual dietary advocacy with efforts to change corporate sourcing, government regulation, and enforcement practices.

In 2020, Animals Now published an assessment of animal protection in Israel 25 years after the Knesset enacted the Animal Welfare Law in August 1994.[14] The organization argued that major gaps remained between the law and its implementation. Its review said most egg-laying hens were still held in crowded cages despite such cages having been prohibited in 36 countries, and that minimum livestock-holding standards had not been established, leaving what it described as hundreds of millions of animals without legal protection.[8]

A separate report described newborn calves being separated from their mothers and sent to crowded fattening facilities and stated that 685,813 lambs and calves were brought from Europe and Australia to Israel for fattening and slaughter in 2018.[14] A 2022 Ynet report stated that 94% of Israeli laying hens were kept in cages and described the killing of male chicks after hatching as an industry practice.[11] Animals Now has used these conditions to support its calls for stronger enforcement, an end to live shipments, and the elimination of cages in poultry farming.