Animal welfare successes in July

📢 You spoke out at the influential Animal Health and Food Safety Conference

Farming Campaign team members from the China office spoke to policy makers, researchers and companies as they got together to share and learn the latest news, ideas and technologies in the food sector. This event is one of the most influential events in the food sector, and the persistent presence of World Animal Protection makes sure that animal welfare and food system traditions are on the agenda.

🔎 You exposed captive dolphin cruelty in Tenerife

The UK team secured a double page spread in The Daily Mirror (both print and online) to call out TUI for continuing to profit from animal cruelty. In the article, we compared low-welfare venues with high-welfare activities to emphasise the need for these animals to be in suitable environments and ultimately where they belong- in the wild. We have had feedback that Tui are being contacted by supporters directly following the article.

📰 You disrupted Groupon’s annual investor meeting

Groupon currently sells tickets to captive dolphin rescues, roadside zoos, and unethical animal interactions. As an investor meeting was taking place, it was an important time to highlight that these activities need to stop being promoted. As part of the demo, flyers were given out, and attention was caught with loudspeakers playing the sounds of wild animals that could be heard from streets away.

The public was very supportive of the demonstration, and members of the public agreed with the boycott. Until this demonstration, Groupon had not responded to any outreach. However, the CEO has now reached out and has suggested a potential meeting to take place.

🐥 You called on KFC to demand a better future for chickens

Teams from Australia, New Zealand and Thailand took to the street to raise awareness of fast-food outlets that are failing in chicken welfare.

The ANZ team took to the streets with a flash mob of chicken dancers, performing at entrances of KFC venues in Sydney and Auckland. During the performance, the dancers highlighted the cruelty and suffering of chickens to the public.

In Thailand, the team and volunteers participated in a global week of action at the KFC head office in Bangkok. Over 40,000 local Thai supporters are adding pressure on KFC to commit to a better future for chickens.

🗞️You made the push to get animal welfare included in major business guidelines

Animal welfare has been included in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) on Responsible Business Conduct for the first time.

These guidelines were introduced in 1976 and were last updated in 2011. The purpose of these guidelines is to guide businesses to act in regard to many key aspects, including human rights, employment and industrial relations, consumer interests, and the environment, as directed by governments.

Working with OECD Watch, Humane Society International (HSI) and FOUR PAWS, we aligned and collaborated to increase the chance of making progress and including animal welfare. The inclusion of animal welfare signifies a huge step forward for the animals.

💊You moved the Chinese government to promote alternatives to traditional medicine

In a huge step towards our Wildlife, Not Medicine campaign, we have moved the Chinese government to establish an expert working group to promote alternatives to wildlife in traditional Chinese medicine.

The China team has been working on this movement for many years. The team has been engaging policy makers to submit policy proposals annually, advocating for policy change in the media, and hosting a high-profile media event to push the government stakeholders to take meaningful action.

The China National Drug Administration has now announced plans to establish an expert working group to promote synthetic alternatives to animal-derived ingredients.

🐘 You revealed how Instagram is failing animal welfare

Our latest report sheds light on to the effectiveness of an alert system that was put in place on Instagram to deter people from searching for exploitative images of elephants.

Due to the cruel methods of training and keeping captive elephants, we wanted to combat the trend of taking pictures with elephants and other wild animals. In 2017, Instagram implemented a pop up that would prompt users about harmful imagery and deter them from searching for certain hashtags.

However, data shows that not a big enough range of hashtags were used, and out of those that did trigger the alert, only 2% would function effectively. We are calling on Instagram to review and update the alert system so it can be more effective.

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