Take Action!

1. Make 2025 the year you go vegan

Veganism is all about putting compassion for animals into practice by adopting a plant-based lifestyle.

Make 2025 the year you switch to a kinder, cruelty-free lifestyle – we have loads of tips, guides, and budget-friendly recipes to help you get started.

2. Take the pledge to never attend or bet on horse racing

The racing industry work incredibly hard to convince the public that horses within the racing industry live ‘fairy-tale’ lives. The reality is that the industry treats horses as expendable commodities, not sentient animals. Around 200 horses are killed each year on British racecourses – many more will suffer agonising injuries. Once no longer deemed ‘of use’ by the industry, horses face an uncertain future, where being killed in a slaughterhouse or at the hands of a knackerman are very common experiences.

Please take a stand against this cruelty and take the pledge to never attend or bet on horse racing.

3. Read our new report: Victims of Abuse in British Horse Racing

Our new report delves into the cruelty horses within the racing industry endured in 2024 – including death, whip abuse and slaughter.

For a comprehensive look into why horse racing is inherently cruel – and why the racing industry’s regulatory bodies are failing horses on an unprecedented scale – read now.

4. Ask your MP to call for better science

The cruel LD50 test involves groups of animals being given increasing doses of a substance until 50% of them are dead. This scientifically unreliable and incredibly cruel test was devised in 1927 and we don’t want it to reach 100 years of age!

Please contact your MP to ask them to support our campaign against the LD50 and all other animal experiments.

5. Sign & share our petition calling for an end to shooting

Please sign and share our petition which calls for a ban on the production, release and shooting of pheasants and partridges. The time is right for a huge show of public opposition to the terrible things that this bloodsport does to animals:

– The breeding parent birds imprisoned for life in appalling metal cages

– Killing of native wildlife, to ‘protect’ the pheasants and partridge until they are shot

– Significant negative impact on other wild animals, caused by the birds’ mass release.

– Use of toxic lead shot

– And, of course, the shooting, wounding and killing of the actual pheasants and partridges themselves.

Help us show the Westminster and devolved governments that we oppose this cruelty.

Thank you.

6. Help our campaign for a UK-wide ban on snares

In 2023, our government petition, calling for a ban on the use of snares was debated in Westminster – with the huge majority of MPs, from different political parties, speaking in support of a ban on snares. In that same year the Welsh Government banned the use of snares. The Scottish Government has just brought in a ban on snares under its Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill.

It is estimated that more than a million animals, including foxes and badgers, are killed by these horrific devices every year. Even cats and dogs become trapped in them and suffer unimaginable pain and sometimes death.

Write to your MP and ask for a ban on snares in England.

7. Read our briefing sheet on why it’s time to ban greyhound racing

The greyhound racing industry is cruel and exploitative. It is shocking that of the ten countries that this ‘sport’ is still legal in, 4 of those are UK countries.

In 2023, 109 greyhounds died on Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) licensed tracks. There were 4,238 injuries. 61 dogs were killed because they were deemed unsuitable for homing, due to ‘treatment costs’ or because no homes could be found. These figures are all from GBGB published data.

Away from the tracks, most racing greyhounds live lives of misery and isolation. Kept in cramped cages with little enrichment or play, and where they must be muzzled constantly if housed in pairs. Racing greyhounds can be discarded at every stage of their racing life due to being deemed ‘not good enough’.

8. Spread the word about our Universities Challenged campaign and website

Our campaign targets universities to ensure that cruel experiments are consigned to the history books. We shed light on the types of experiments being conducted and which species of animals are being routinely abused.

In addition, the information provided here can be used by students who are already at university, whether or not they are studying science, who deserve to know how their tuition fees are being spent.

Please visit the website and share the link with anyone you know who is a prospective student, current student, or anyone who wants to see an end to animal experiments.

9. Ban the sale of fireworks!

Anyone who shares their home with an animal will know the terrifying effect that fireworks can have on them – animals can be inconsolable and extremely distressed by the noise. Some animals are so traumatised they actually die of fright.

As well as the enormous and widespread animal suffering caused by noisy fireworks, they can also cause immense distress to vulnerable adults, those with PTSD or people who are very sensitive to noise.

For so many reasons, fireworks should be banned.

10. Help us get hatching projects out of classrooms

Write to Bridget Phillipson MP Secretary of State for Education, requesting that the reference to hatching and rearing chicks be removed from the Year 5 National Curriculum guidance.

You can also send our “What’s wrong with hatching projects” factsheet and letter to any teachers who may be considering running hatching projects. Email us their name and school address and we can send these on your behalf.

11. Help ban the import and sale of fur and foie gras

Globally, more than 100 million animals suffer and die in the fur trade each year. Meanwhile, foie gras production is immensely cruel and widely criticised. Every year, millions of birds endure unimaginable physical and psychological pain in the production of this so-called ‘delicacy’.

Both practices were found to be incompatible with UK animal protection legislation, which is why fur farming and the production of foie gras were banned in 2000 and 2011, respectively. And yet, their importation and sale continues. Surely, if fur and foie gras are too cruel to be produced in the UK, then they are too cruel to be imported and consumed in the UK.

Fur update: Labour MP Ruth Jones has successfully sponsored the Fur(Import and Sale) Bill which had its first reading in the House of Commons on the 16th Oct. The second reading is scheduled for the 13th June 2025. This Bill is already attracting cross-party support.

Please ask your MP to support this Bill and the next step of banning the import and sale of foie gras. Thank you. 

12. Download Animal Aid’s guide on “How to get active for animals!”

Campaigning for animals can be a positive way to engage with the public about animal rights issues and encourage more compassion. It can also help influence businesses and other decision makers to avoid cruel practices. If you are new to campaigning or a seasoned activist looking for new suggestions, check out our guide on “How to Get Active for Animals!”

13. As well as adding your name to petitions started by Animal Aid, there are also petitions started by others which are pushing to end the persecution and killing of various animals, and to protect our ability to fight for animals

The following petitions are only a small sample:

National Lottery Heritage Fund, stop giving money to kill grey squirrels!
Stop animal gifting
Stop the planned killing of wild parrots in the UK
Ban driven grouse shooting
Make the sale of catapults/ammunition and carrying catapults in public illegal

Thank you so much for your help.

If you would like more information about any of these campaigns, please contact us. Please also take a moment to find out about more general ways you can support our work. And don’t forget to stay in touch! Please sign up to our email list, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.