About

The Center is the first non-profit animal welfare organization that focuses on influencing the conduct of corporations to forge a humane economic order.

Building a humane economy, one company at a time, across a wide range of industries

Read more about how the Center for a Humane Economy shapes the way businesses treat animals

How We Do It

Benchmarking Standards

Developing specific and practical measures for companies to track and normalize animal welfare practices internally.​

Assessing Industry Performance​

Analyzing business practices across animal impact industries and issuing white papers on their overall performance on animal welfare.​

Championing Alternatives

Highlighting innovators and companies leading their field in alternatives to animal use.​

Educating Consumers

Inspiring and educating the public about significant corporate impacts on animal welfare.

Engaging Corporations

Partnering with companies to transition from harmful to humane animal practices.

Lobbying Policymakers​

Supporting laws and regulations that improve the welfare of animals in captivity and in the wild.

Conducting Campaigns​

Using research and partnerships to lead campaigns on a number of corporate animal welfare issues.​

Find out what steps you can take here

We need not accept the idea of routine cruelty in agriculture, entertainment, wildlife management, or any other part of our economy and culture. Together, by adopting new standards through political channels and reinforcing what business leaders are doing and ready to do, we can create a new normal when it comes to our human relationship with animals.

– Wayne Pacelle, The Humane Economy: How Innovators and Enlightened Consumers Are Transforming the Lives of Animals

Learn About Our Campaigns

Man aiming rock in slingshot at dog-Animal Cruelty Enforcement campaign

Animal Cruelty Enforcement

Identifying and prosecuting individuals who hurt animals will help stop them from hurting people later.
Pitbull in heavy muzzle-Animal fighting is the pits campaign

Animal Fighting is the Pits

We are working to end both dogfighting and cockfighting. Cockfighting is one of the biggest underground animal-use industries in the U.S., with fighting birds raised on an agricultural scale.
Stressed greyhounds in muzzles racing-banning greyhound racing campaign

Banning Greyhound Racing

We are working to stop greyhound racing, given that dogs are injured or die at the few tracks where this spectator sport continues in the United States.

Cage-Free Future

We are working toward a national policy to ban gestation crates on pig farms and small cages at laying hen facilities.
Sick dairy cow being comforted by cow companion-Dunking the Milk Mandate in Schools campaign

Dunking the Milk Mandate in Schools

We are working to make milk alternatives more readily available to school children by eliminating the government milk mandate in the National School Lunch Program. One outcome may be better treatment of cows on farms.

Elephants in Crisis

Thailand advertises the elephant as an icon. But after Thailand restricted logging, more than 3,000 captive elephants were reemployed in tourist enterprises — with inhumane training techniques, unending labor and abandonment or chaining during economic downturns.
Closeup of distressed horse in stable-End horse slaughter campaign

End Horse Slaughter

We are working to ban the predatory horse slaughter industry that takes advantage of animals never raised for the plate.
Wounded bald eagle on vet table-Getting the Lead Out campaign

Getting the Lead Out

We are working to end the use of lead ammunition on National Wildlife Refuges

Kangaroos Are Not Shoes

We are working to stop the commercial killing in Australia of roughly two million wild kangaroos annually — mainly to manufacture soccer cleats.

Modernize Testing

Animal testing is outmoded because, unlike human biology-based test methods, animals are unreliable predictors of human response, delaying treatments and cures to patients and driving up drug costs.
two orcas jumping in front of mountains-shutterstock_protecting the orca campaign

Protecting the Orca​

Only 73 orcas now swim off the Pacific Northwest coast, their numbers dwindled because of salmon overfishing. We don’t need to eat King Salmon. Orcas do.

ReThink Mink

We are working to end mink farming for fur — an industry that causes immense suffering to mink and poses major animal and human health threats because of the unique susceptibility of factory-farmed mink to SARS-CoV-2.

Saving Wolves

We are working to stop the assaults on wolves across their range in the United States, including in Idaho, Montana, and Wisconsin where the states have initiated particularly ruthless killing plans for wolves.

Snowmobiles Aren’t Weapons

Ending the sadistic cruelty of running down wild animals with vehicles.
Walter Palmer posing with Cecil, the African lion he killed-Tourism without Trophy Hunting campaign

Tourism without Trophy Hunting

We are working to stop the needless hunting of threatened and endangered wildlife — including elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards, wolves and grizzly bears.