Erica Meier | |
|---|---|
 Erica Meier in 2016 | |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Animal rights advocate |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Awards | 2013 inductee into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame [1] |
Erica Meier is an animal rights advocate and was the president and executive director of Animal Outlook (previously known as Compassion Over Killing) from 2005 to 2021. [2] [3] [4]
Meier's father owned a small meat-packing company. However, her strong connection to animals made her uncomfortable with eating meat. In high school, she learned more about how meat production can be harmful to the planet, and she decided to become vegetarian. When she later learned about animal mistreatment on factory farms and the conditions for dairy cows and egg-laying hens, she became vegan. This led her to switch her career interests from environmental protection to animal protection. [5]
Meier interned with PETA in college and spent three years working there after graduating. She developed an interest in humane law enforcement and moved to Washington, D.C. to work as an animal control officer for the Washington Humane Society, where she rescued animals and helped to enforce anti-cruelty laws. [5]
In 2005, Meier became animal advocacy organization Animal Outlook's president and executive director. Animal Outlook's work is focused on the protection of farmed animals, and the organization has become best known for its investigations into the conditions facing animals on factory farms.
Meier led Animal Outlook through several successful campaigns, including ending the egg industry's use of "Animal Care Certified" claims that could mislead consumers, as well as persuading companies like Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, and Subway to offer vegan options. [6] [5] [7] She also persuaded vegetarian brands Boca Burger, Lightlife, Morningstar Farms, and Quorn to eliminate or reduce their use of eggs in their products. [1]
Meier was an outspoken leader of Animal Outlook. She delivered speeches at events including the Animal Rights National Conference, the Maryland Animal Law Symposium, the Forum on Industrial Animal Farming hosted by the Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic, the National Conference to End Factory Farming, and various vegetarian festivals. [8] [9] She also appeared in major news outlets including CNN, ABC's Nightline, the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, and Reuters. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Meier provided information used in Mark Hawthorne's book Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism , and she has been featured in documentary films, such as Speciesism: The Movie (2013), Meat the Future (2020), and Meat Me Halfway (2021).
Meier is a frequent contributor to HuffPost and VegNews , and she has written for The New York Times . [15] [16] [17]
Meier has been vegan since college. [18]
In 2013, Meier was inducted into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame. [1]
Carol J. Adams 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 (2004), focusing in particular on what she argues are the links between the oppression of women and that of non-human animals. She was inducted into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame in 2011.
Animal welfare and rights in Israel is about the treatment of and laws concerning nonhuman animals in Israel. Israel's major animal welfare law is the Animal Protection Law, passed in 1994, which has been amended several times since. Several other laws also related to the treatment of animals: Rabies Ordinance, 1934; Fishing Ordinance, 1937; Public Health Ordinance, 1940; Wildlife Protection Law, 1955; Plants Protection Law, 1956; Criminal Procedure Law, 1982; Animal Disease Ordinance, 1985; National Parks, Nature Reserves, National Sites and Memorial Sites Law, 1991; the Law of Veterinarians, 1991; Dog Regulation Law, 2002; Rabies Regulations (Vaccinations), 2005; and Prohibition on declawing cats unless for reasons vital to the cat's health or owner's health, 2011.
Animal Outlook, formerly known as Compassion Over Killing (COK), is a nonprofit animal advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.. It is headed since May 2021 by Executive Director Cheryl Leahy, who succeeded Erica Meier. Formed in 1995, as a high school club, their primary campaigns are to advocate against factory farming and promote vegan eating. While the group welcomes those who are interested in animal welfare who eat meat, it encourages a transition to a plant-based diet.
Paul Shapiro is an American animal welfare writer who authored the 2018 book Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World. He's also the CEO and cofounder of The Better Meat Co. and the host of the Business for Good Podcast. He has delivered five TEDx talks relating to sustainable food and animal welfare. Prior to publishing Clean Meat, he was known for being an animal protection advocate, both as the founder of Animal Outlook and a Vice President at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
World Vegetarian Day is observed annually around the planet on October 1. It is a day of celebration established by the North American Vegetarian Society in 1977 and endorsed by the International Vegetarian Union in 1978, "To promote the joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism." It brings awareness to the ethical, environmental, health, and humanitarian benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. World Vegetarian Day initiates the month of October as Vegetarian Awareness Month, which ends with November 1, World Vegan Day, as the end of that month of celebration. Vegetarian Awareness Month has been known variously as "Reverence for Life" month, "Month of Vegetarian Food", and more.
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Jewish Veg is an international 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose mission is to encourage and help Jews to embrace plant-based diets as an expression of the Jewish values of compassion for animals, concern for health, and care for the environment. Jewish Veg was formerly called Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) and, prior to that, the Jewish Vegetarian Society of America.
Non-vegetarian food contains meat, and sometimes, eggs. The term is common in India, but not usual elsewhere. In the generally vegetarian environment of India, restaurants offering meat and fish usually have a "non-vegetarian" section of their menu, and may include the term in their name-boards and advertising. When describing people, non-vegetarians eat meat and/or eggs, as opposed to vegetarians. But in India, consumption of dairy foods is usual for both groups.
Norm Phelps was an American animal rights activist, vegetarian and writer. He was a founding member of the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV), and a former outreach director of the Fund for Animals. He authored four books on animal rights: The Dominion of Love: Animal Rights According to the Bible (2002), The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights (2004), The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA (2007), and Changing the Game: Animal Liberation in the Twenty-first Century (2015).
Jewish vegetarianism is a commitment to vegetarianism that is connected to Judaism, Jewish ethics or Jewish identity. Jewish vegetarians often cite Jewish principles regarding animal welfare, environmental ethics, moral character, and health as reasons for adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet.
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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. It operates ten national and international programs from its headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.
Alex Hershaft is an American animal rights activist, Holocaust survivor, and co-founder and president of the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), the nation's oldest (1976) organization devoted exclusively to promoting the rights of animals not to be raised for food. Previously, he has had a 30-year career in materials science and environmental consulting and a prominent role in movements for religious freedom and environmental quality.
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 from factory farms. Their intent is to build a movement that can eventually shift culture and change social and political institutions. DxE activists work to "put an end to the commodity status of animals."
Animal welfare and rights in Canada is about the laws concerning and treatment of nonhuman animals in Canada. Canada has been considered to have weak animal welfare protections by the organization World Animal Protection. The vast majority of Canadians are for further animal protections, according to a poll conducted on behalf of Mercy for Animals.
This article is about the treatment of and laws concerning non-human animals in Australia. Australia has moderate animal protections by international standards.
Animal welfare and rights in Spain is about the treatment of and laws concerning non-human animals in Spain. Spain has moderate animal protections by international standards.
Animal welfare and rights in France is about the treatment of and laws concerning non-human animals in France. France has moderate animal welfare protections by international standards.
Jasmin Singer is an American animal rights activist. Since 2022, she has been the host of Weekend Edition for WXXI, Rochester, NY's NPR member station. She is the co-founder of the non-profit organization and podcast Our Hen House, serves as editor-at-large of VegNews, and is the former Vice President of Editorial at Kinder Beauty. She also supports LGBTQ+ and overlapping social justice issues.
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