2021 – What a Year for Animals!

This year has seen some massive victories for animals! Watch this video to see some of the action we’ve taken to further animal rights and fight speciesism here in the UK and around the globe in 2021:

It’s true, 2021 made history! Remember the Queen’s Speech? The inclusion of animals in the state opening of Parliament showed that society’s understanding of who other animals are has evolved. We must recognise them as sentient beings like us, deserving of legal protection from human exploitation, abuse, and neglect.

PETA continued campaigning for all animals this year, and here’s just a selection of the many victories we achieved in 2021:

Experimenting on Animals

PETA entities around the world kept up the pressure to end all experiments on animals and made significant progress. TRESemmé banned all tests on animals, pharma giant Amgen dropped the cruel forced swim test, UK officials acknowledged the absurdity of forcing mice to swim for their lives in the name of “science”, and rats and fish were spared when the European Chemicals Agency was compelled not to use them as laboratory equipment.

In a monumental move, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of developing a plan to end all experiments on animals in EU laboratories – but the job is not done yet. Find out why and how you can help make these cruel experiments a thing of the past.

Eating Animals

PETA UK stopped plans for monstrous pig and rabbit farms and kept up the pressure on Fortnum & Mason until it banned foie gras! We exposed The “Happy” Egg Co for misleading its customers, and the brand lost its parkrun sponsorship.

One of Ireland’s major supermarkets, SuperValu, dropped coconut milk brand Chaokoh after our monkey abuse exposé.

We celebrated as the European Commission committed to banning cages for animals on farms after being contacted by over 1.4 million people, including PETA supporters.

We also pushed for and praised new launches of innovative vegan food – from “fish” and chips to vegan burgers at Burger King and McDonald’s.

Wearing Animals

PETA entities continued reminding brands that animals are not ours to wear. And they’ve been listening!

Canada Goose, Saint Laurent, and Brioni dropped fur, while huge brands like FARFETCH and Armani Group realised the horror of angora for rabbits and committed to stop selling the cruelly produced material. The largest cosmetics company in the world, L’Oréal Group, and iconic UK razor brand Wilkinson Sword banned brushes made with badger hair. And the list of brands and stores that are rejecting exotic skins has grown significantly.

PETA UK also helped achieve over 1 million signatures in support of the #FurFreeBritain campaign – so watch this space!

Using Animals for Entertainment and Abusing Them in Other Ways

From opposing bullfighting and taking on the Olympic Games and its appalling treatment of horses to calling for an end to cruel dog-sled races, we fought against the immense suffering of animals used for human entertainment.

We appealed to members of the National Trust to vote against permitting hunting on its land – and they did! Expedia, Your Co-op Travel, and many other holiday companies stopped promoting SeaWorld, snakes and other animals were spared a gory death in the Cobra Gold military training exercises, and Wales acknowledged the devastating suffering caused by snares and glue traps and banned them.

Thank You!

Each of these achievements was only possible because caring, determined people refused to look away or stay silent while animals suffered. Until every cage is empty, every chain is broken, and every animal is treated with respect, PETA will not stop. Will you join us?

Sign up for e-mail updates and we’ll send you urgent petitions and other actions that will help secure even more victories for animals in 2022.