Outstanding progress brings festive cheer & continued hope

As we look back on 2024, this momentous year will be remembered for the outstanding progress we achieved for farmed animals – enabled by your amazing, unwavering and steadfast support.

Our progress against factory farming is a cause for celebration and as dawn breaks on a new year, we enjoy rays of renewed hope and strength to continue creating a better future for animals, people and the planet. Let’s take stock of all we accomplished together this year.

Live exports finally banned

In May, following decades of campaigning, live animal exports for slaughter or fattening were finally banned from Great Britain – sparing young calves and sheep from suffering on horrendous journeys from our shores. This was a truly momentous day for farmed animals.

We, together with Kent Action Against Live Exports (KAALE), marked the historic win by projecting a poignant film onto the iconic White Cliffs of Dover, which thanked all of you who helped to finally ban this cruel and unnecessary trade.

Megafarms rise mapped out

In February, we launched a new investigation, in The Times, highlighting the rise of US-style megafarms. And in August, we saw a further flurry of media activity with our ‘Factory Farming Map’ when the BBC focused on our data relating to beef and dairy cattle, resulting in extensive TV & radio coverage.

This factory farm data was pulled together into an interactive map revealing the startlingly high numbers of livestock permanently housed indoors, or without access to pasture, in the biggest farming units across the UK, at any one time. In total, over one billion animals are housed in UK factory farms.

We used these figures to encourage central Government to strengthen the law and issue guidance to local councils who, despite being on the front line in granting planning permission for new units, are often unaware that animal welfare and climate change issues can be a material consideration in every planning decision.

Muck Maps show rivers at risk

In November, we joined forces with Friends of the Earth and Sustain to release new data revealing the areas most at risk from factory farm pollution on an interactive ‘Muck Map’. It exposed the impact of slurry, manure, nitrates and ammonia on river catchments areas.

The research found that up to 33,450 tonnes of manure – the weight equivalent to an astonishing 2,788 empty double-decker busses – is produced in the UK every day by pig and poultry factory farms. This startling figure illustrates that factory farms not only harm animals, but are largely responsible for the enormous environmental damage to our rivers, dwindling marine life, biodiversity loss and poor soil and air quality. Our research also illustrated how manure from factory farms is stopping Government from meeting national house building targets. It certainly captured the media’s attention with excellent coverage in over 150 outlets including BBC Online, The Independent, and The Mirror.

Marching for wildlife & clean water

This year we also took part in two significant London marches – Restore Nature Now and March for Clean Water. Both events attracted thousands of members of the public and hundreds of campaigning organisations who came together to highlight the decline of nature and our waterways and called for Government action. We were marching to highlight the impact of factory farms on river pollution and nature destruction.

Keeping antibiotics on the agenda

A new report was launched in September by the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics – of which we are a founding member – highlighting that supermarkets need to do far more to toughen up on their antibiotic policies used in their supply chains. The report gained widespread media coverage including stories in The Mail, Guardian, and The Independent helping to raise awareness of the urgent need to act on the overuse of antibiotics in farming before it’s too late.

Pushing our message in Parliament

We organised and attended numerous Parliamentary events throughout the year, which provided opportunities to take our message to the heart of Westminster. A landmark first-of-its-kind ‘Animals Matter’ hustings, hosted by ourselves and three other animal protection organisations, took place in May – the day before the General Election was called. The event included a panel of MPs from the four largest political parties in the last Parliament. They set out their position and responded to challenging questions and comments from the audience on a variety of animal welfare issues.

In October, alongside the RSPCA, Humane Society International/UK and Four Paws, we held a Parliamentary reception to discuss upcoming issues in the animal welfare sector and calling on the new Labour Government to produce a comprehensive animal welfare strategy. The event was hosted by Ruth Jones MP and attended by almost 100 other MPs. Topics discussed during the reception – which TV and radio broadcaster and animal welfare campaigner Kirsty Gallagher spoke at – included the phasing out of the use of cages and crates for farmed animals, the need for mandatory method of production labelling on meat and dairy products and a shift away from intensive farming towards climate, nature friendly practices.

Continuing to campaign for Honest Labelling

In May, after two years of waiting and engaging with politicians on the issue of food labelling, our continuous efforts paid off when the Government finally launched a consultation. The consultation considered how Government could help to increase transparency for consumers around country of origin and method of production, so that they can make more informed choices when purchasing meat. We will be eagerly awaiting the publication of the consultation response next year.

Hope on the horizon

The significant progress made for farmed animals this year, has instilled us with renewed vigour for 2025, when we will:

keep pushing for the Government to launch the promised consultations to End the Cage Age for UK farmed animals
campaign to ensure that the expansion of animal welfare labelling of meat and dairy products stays on the UK Governments agenda
build momentum to our End-It campaign, following the great success of our interactive Factory Farming Map and Muck Map, keeping it in the minds of both politicians and the media, that factory farming is having a detrimental impact on animals, people and the planet
continue building on growing a movement by spreading the word of Compassion and the work we do to new audiences to help us achieve even greater progress next year.

A thousand thanks

“2024 will forever be etched in my memory as the culmination of more than 50 years of hard work by so many to finally win our campaign to Ban Live Exports,” said Anthony Field, Head of our UK Office.

“That sense of achievement instils hope in ensuring our many other campaigns will also have successful outcomes as we continue to fight for farmed animals.

“Together, we have achieved so much over the past 12 months and will continue to push for change that improve the lives of farmed animals, not only here in the UK, but across the globe in 2025.

“A thousand thanks to each and every one of our fantastic supporters and on behalf of us all at Compassion, may we wish you a most wonderful festive season and a very happy new year!”

Read about our wider achievements in our Global CEO, Philip Lymbery’s latest blog.