Our Work
Our three interrelated programmes work together to increase public support, resulting in systemic change, eliminating animals from our food system, and paving the way for animal freedom.
Our Programmes
-
We are cultivating a national network of grassroots groups:
Expanding our local group model nationwide.
Providing training, resources, and coaching on organising, campaigning, and persuasive messaging.
Supporting local groups to engage non-vegans and mainstream animal lovers through accessible campaigns.
Developing the infrastructure for a thriving and connected local group network, which can then mobilise for national actions.
-
We are aligning grassroots and national NGO efforts towards shared goals:
Fostering movement-wide trust and connections through regular convenings.
Enhancing communication, coordination, and collaboration through well–connected and well-supported networks.
-
We are increasing the dominance of persuasive pro-animal narratives in the media and popular culture:
Identifying and testing persuasive narratives through public research.
Building movement unity around persuasive narratives.
Cultivating networks of journalists, storytellers, and media spokespeople to disseminate pro-animal narratives and ensure animal freedom is central in media, culture, and policy discussions.
Collectively, these three programmes are equipping the movement to:
Respond swiftly to trigger events e.g. the animal movement missed opportunities to mobilise around Cecil the Lion (2015), Beau the Calf (2024), and Animal Rising’s 2024 RSPCA Investigation, to turn public outrage into momentum for animal freedom.
Seize political and cultural opportunities for progress e.g. the UK's 2022 Animal Sentience Act was an important win, but the movement lacks the power to translate it into stronger legal protections.
Generate the public pressure needed for systemic change e.g. the Hunting Act (2004) and Live Exports ban (2024) in the UK were won through decades of relentless activism, mass protests and public pressure.
Pilot Initiatives
In 2024 we launched For Charlie, a movement-wide campaign demanding that the RSPCA disassociate from its Assured scheme, which has been widely criticised for concealing farmed animal cruelty.
Catalysed by Animal Rising’s 2024 investigation of 37 RSPCA Assured farms, which exposed systemic cruelty, the campaign gained momentum through an open letter signed by over 170 individuals and organisations, including veterinarians, former RSPCA board members, celebrities such as Joanna Lumley, Ricky Gervais and Bryan Adams, and over 60 pro-animal organisations. The letter urges the RSPCA to drop the Assured scheme and actively advocate for a plant-based future.
A short film by BAFTA-winning director Alex Lockwood accompanied the letter. The film highlights the story of Charlie the pig, rescued from an RSPCA Assured farm, alongside powerful testimony from former insiders.
The campaign’s major success was securing mass media coverage, leading to Sir Brian May’s resignation as an RSPCA Vice President, amplifying public scrutiny of welfare-washing in animal agriculture. By fostering movement-wide coordination and collaboration, For Charlie has strengthened the fight against industry deception, uniting activists and organisations in a strategic push for systemic change, developed movement capacity to seize opportunities, and laid the groundwork for future collaboration.
Learn more and take action: ForCharlie.love
We launched Dorset Animal Action in July 2024 as a pilot local group to revitalise grassroots organising in the UK animal freedom movement. By uniting fragmented activist groups and maximising local community recruitment, it offers a scalable model for community-led activism, laying the foundations for a mass national movement.
Since its launch, Dorset Animal Action has grown to 40+ active members and created a WhatsApp community of 170+ activists across 16 sub-groups. It has launched successful local campaigns, including a Bournemouth Oceanarium pressure campaign with regular protests, stunts, and a petition that reached 1,000 signatures in two weeks. The group has also become a key player in the MBR Suppliers campaign (see below). Dorset Animal Action has attracted significant media attention through street theatre, chalking, and direct action, including a front-page feature in the Bournemouth Echo.
By strengthening grassroots participation, increasing cross-movement collaboration, and expanding recruitment, the group has proven to be a replicable model for local activism. With support from Project Phoenix, similar groups are now emerging in Southampton, Nottingham, Brighton, the Isle of Wight, and Sheffield, demonstrating the power of decentralised organising in the fight for animal freedom. As the model grows, Dorset Animal Action remains a thriving and vibrant proving ground for trying and testing new and emergent approaches to community organising.
Learn more and take action: DorsetAnimalAction.org
We launched the MBR Suppliers campaign as a grassroots initiative to give emergent community-based organisers a national cause to rally behind.
The campaign capitalises on grassroots and public focus on MBR Acres, a dog breeding factory in Cambridgeshire, which supplies 2,000 dogs yearly to the British research industry (a 2025 petition by Camp Beagle received over 200,000 signatures in a week). With 36% of UK households living with a dog, this campaign offers a wide recruitment pool from the public, serving as a gateway into the wider animal freedom movement.
Structured without hierarchy or external funding but with clear and accessible information, ideas, and inspiration, the campaign offers abundant opportunities for autonomous organising, skill sharing, local wins, and, ultimately, a collective victory that would empower the grassroots. The regular, tangible victories of a campaign like this, owned by its participants, boost morale, recruitment, and retention for the whole grassroots space. In the first three months of the campaign, 20 companies joined the boycott of MBR Acres.
The full campaign strategy can be viewed here.
Learn more and take action: facebook.com/groups/mbrsuppliers
World Day for Animals in Laboratories (WDAIL) has occurred on the nearest Saturday to April 24th, every year since 1979.
Initially founded by the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS), it has been organised by grassroots collectives in recent years. From a high of over 20,000 attendees in 1992, participation dropped to just 150 in 2024, reflecting the decrease in community organising.
Project Phoenix is co-organising the 2025 event on April 26th. By weaving cohesive networks, we have garnered support and promotion from the wider movement, including Animal Rising, We The Free, Animal Free Research, Unoffensive Animal, Camp Beagle, and Chris Packham.
The local groups seeded by Project Phoenix, Dorset Animal Action, and Southampton Animal Action have organised coach transport, bringing half the total attendance numbers for 2024 from these two areas alone, demonstrating that mass mobilisation is possible and in progress.