Helping animals at scale — an evening with The Humane League 🌍🐓🍕

Most of us, irrespective of diet, culture, or political affiliation, say that we care about how animals are treated and consider animal cruelty to be unacceptable. Many of us would like to contribute, in whatever ways seem feasible, to improving farmed animals' living conditions and alleviating some of their suffering. This event is about making it easier to help, through knowledge and shared understanding. 🌱

Why is this important?: Cruel but standard farming practises such as confinement cages and routine mutilations practices continue to affect hundreds of billions of sentient animals every year. The number of animals killed each year is more than the total number of humans who have ever existed. Many philosophers, ethicists, and researchers regard the degree and scale of the caused suffering as one of the most serious and neglected moral problems of our time.

This event, which combines a structured lecture 🎙️ with a collaborative discussion 💬, is an opportunity to look more closely at some proven, effective strategies to address the problem. It will be presented by The Humane League's Research Lead Giovanni Fabris and Principal Strategist Leo le Ster, who will offer an inside look at how animal welfare campaigns are designed and what makes them succeed.

About The Humane League 🌍: The Humane League is one of the most effective animal welfare organisations in the world, working to end the abuse of animals raised for food through corporate campaigns and policy change. Thanks to their work and that of their allies, cage-free hen production in the US rose from around 3% to nearly 46% over 15 years.

Helping animals beyond individual choices: Individuals can help animals in many ways — changing their diets, donating to impactful organisations, or volunteering. Being vegan is one of the most direct ways to withdraw personal support from systems that cause animal suffering. But some of the highest-impact opportunities lie in shifting institutions and corporate policies — work that most people are entirely unaware of, and that this evening will shed some light on 💡.

Logistics 📍: We meet directly at ETH Zurich HG E41 on Tuesday, 28 April, at 6.15 p.m. (please be on time!). After the talk, there will be a chance to discuss and socialize over vegan pizza. 🍕

You don't have to be vegan to join: As always, this event is open to everyone — and relevant to everyone. Whether you are fully vegan or nowhere near it, there are plenty of meaningful ways to contribute to this cause, and this evening is a good place to start figuring out what that might look like for you. 🌱