The Animal Rights National Conference is an annual conference in the United States. Started in 1981 under a different name, since 2000 it has been organized by

Farm Animal Rights Movement Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) is an international nonprofit organization working to promote a vegan lifestyle and animal rights through public education and grass roots outreach.

(FARM).

History

In the 1970s,

Alex Hershaft Alex Hershaft is an American Animal rights movement, animal rights activist, Holocaust survivors, Holocaust survivor, and co-founder and president of the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), the nation's oldest (1976) organization devoted exclusi ...

started noticing that animal rights people were attending his vegetarian conferences. After discussing with them and doing more reading on the subject, in 1981 he organized Action for Life, a joining of the vegetarian and animal rights movements, and launched a series of annual conferences. These conferences were held annually for seven years (1981–1987) and typically included training sessions for activists, networking, ceremonial activities, video showings, and open discussions. The conferences helped spawn other animal rights organizations with different focuses, including

(Hershaft's organization),

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; , stylized as PeTA) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. PETA reports that PETA entities have ...

, Trans-Species Unlimited, Mobilization for Animals, and Animal Rights Network. Peter Linck of the National Alliance for Animals had also been holding conferences in the 1980s, and those became the successors to the Action for Life conferences from 1988 to 1996. In 1997, FARM stepped up to again organize the national conferences, alternating between east and west coast venues. In 2004, after the prosecution of a few animal rights activists as terrorists, the

Humane Society of the United States The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is an American nonprofit organization that focuses on animal welfare and opposes animal-related cruelties of national scope. It uses strategies that are beyond the abilities of local organizations. ...

and a few other animal protection groups withdrew their support for these conferences as they didn't want to advocate for violence. Those organizations formed their own annual conferences under the name "Taking Action for Animals". Likewise,

Direct Action Everywhere Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is an international grassroots network of animal rights activists founded in 2013 in the San Francisco Bay Area. DxE uses disruptive protests and non-violent direct action tactics, such as open rescue of animals fr ...

hosts the Animal Liberation Conference. In 2018, Alex Hershaft retired as Conference Chair. Jen Riley took on the post of Conference Chair and organizes the conferences along with Ethan Eldreth as Program Manager and a newly formed Program Advisory Committee.

Conferences

, a typical conference involves "2,000 attendees representing 90 organizations from a dozen countries, with 100 exhibitors and 170 speakers presenting in 80 sessions."

Animal Rights Hall of Fame

Elected by the speakers of each annual conference, individuals who have made outstanding contributions towards animal rights in the US are inducted into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame. Previous winners include: * 2000:

Cleveland Amory Cleveland Amory (September 2, 1917 – October 14, 1998) was an American author, reporter, television critic, commentator and animal rights activist. He originally was known for writing a series of popular books poking fun at the pretensions an ...

Howard Lyman Howard F. Lyman (born September 18, 1938, in Great Falls, Montana) is an American farmer and animal rights activist known for promoting vegan nutrition and organic farming. In 1997 he was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for his ...

Ingrid Newkirk Ingrid Elizabeth Newkirk (née Ward; born June 11, 1949) is a British-American animal activist and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization. She is the author of several ...

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a secular, ...

Henry Spira Henry Spira (19 June 1927 – 12 September 1998) was an American activist for socialism and animal rights, who is regarded by some as one of the most effective animal advocates of the 20th century.Singer, in Spira and Singer 2006, pp. 214–215. ...

* 2001:

Gene Baur Gene Baur (born July 24, 1962), formerly known as Gene Bauston, is an author and activist in the animal rights and food movement. He’s been called the "conscience of the food movement" by ''Time'' magazine, and opposes factory farming and advoc ...

, Lorri Houston,

, Jim Mason, Alex Pacheco * 2002: Karen Davis, Shirley McGreal,

Paul Watson Paul Franklin Watson (born December 2, 1950) is a Canadian-American conservation and environmental movement, environmental activist, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching and direct action group focused on marine c ...

* 2003: Rodney Coronado, Elliot Katz * 2004:

Bruce Friedrich Bruce Gregory Friedrich (born August 7, 1969) is co-founder and president of The Good Food Institute (GFI), a Y Combinator funded non-profit that promotes plant- and cell-based alternatives to animal products. He is also a co-founder of the alte ...

, Laura Moretti * 2005:

Matt Ball Matthew Michael Ball (born 1968) is an American animal activist. He is co-founder and President of One Step for Animals. Previously, he was Director of Engagement and Outreach at Farm Sanctuary, and before that, Senior Advisor for VegFund. In 1 ...

, Jack Norris,

Gretchen Wyler Gretchen Wyler (born Gretchen Patricia Wienecke; February 16, 1932 – May 27, 2007) was an American actress and dancer. She was also an animal rights advocate and founder of the Genesis Awards for animal protection. Biography Early lif ...

* 2006:

Steve Hindi Steven Omar Hindi (born ) is an American animal rights activist and businessman. He is the founder and president of the animal rights organization Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK). Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Hindi grew up in a hunti ...

, Ben White * 2007:

Kevin Kjonaas Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Europe's largest contract Animal testing, animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on ...

, James Laveck, Jenny Stein * 2008: Paul Shapiro * 2009:

Nathan Runkle Milo Runkle (born April 13, 1984 as Nathan) is a founding partner oJoyful Ventures He is the co-founder of The Good Food Institute and founder and former president of Mercy For Animals. Career Milo Runkle is a founding partner oJoyful Ventures� ...

* 2010: Zoe Weil * 2011:

Carol J. Adams Carol J. Adams (born 1951) is an American writer, feminist, and animal rights advocate. She is the author of several books, including '' The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory'' (1990) and ''The Pornography of Meat'' ...

* 2012: Joe Connelly and Colleen Holland * 2013: Erica Meier * 2014: Jon Camp * 2015:

Josh Balk Josh Balk (born September 24, 1979) is the co-founder and CEO of The AccountabilitBoard Previously, he was vice president of farm animal protection for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) farm animal division. In addition, he is a cofou ...

* 2016:

Tom Regan Tom Regan (; November 28, 1938 – February 17, 2017) was an American philosopher who specialized in animal rights theory. He was professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, where he had taught from 1967 until his reti ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Animal Rights National Conference Recurring events established in 2000 Animal welfare organizations based in the United States Animal rights movement