About Us

Who Are We?

Animal Rising is a group of passionate and driven people aiming to create a world where animals, people, and nature thrive. We do this through organising, community, and bold action; we are building a movement to transform humanity’s relationship with animals, nature, and ourselves.

The Animal Rising Collective is a group of projects working together toward a world where animals, people, and nature can thrive. What started as Animal Rebellion in 2019 has grown into an ecosystem: Animal Rising is shifting the national conversation towards ending animal industries, primarily factory farming; Communities Against Factory Farming is stopping new factory farms at the planning stage; and Plant-Based Schools and Plant-Based Universities are transforming institutions. Every project points towards the same target: ending factory farming by 2040.

Our bosses are the chicken and the fish: it is about what is best for the animals, and that guides our decisions.

Our History

Animal Rising began in May 2019 under the name of Animal Rebellion, starting as a partner to Extinction Rebellion, which at the time was organising the biggest campaign of nonviolent mass civil disobedience in UK history, calling for action on the climate and nature emergencies.

Extinction Rebellion had gained global prominence following the April 2019 Rebellion, which led them to become the top global influencer on climate, and the largest progressive grassroots social movement since Occupy. They had completely changed the conversation about climate consciousness; however, Extinction Rebellion had avoided talking about animal farming and fishing as a key contributor to this.

Animal Rebellion was founded in support of Extinction Rebellion’s aims of climate action, to mobilise the animal movement, and to bring a plant-based food system to the centre of the environmental conversation. It was co-founded and led by Dan Kidby, who had spent years researching how to build social movements at Animal Think Tank, and with the backing of 18 animal freedom organisations in the UK.

Animal Rebellion organised alongside Extinction Rebellion, publicly launching at the National Animal Rights March in August 2019, which we co-organised with Surge, drawing a crowd of 10,000 people. We went on to build a team of over 50 full- and part-time volunteers and mobilised over a thousand people for Extinction Rebellion’s October Rebellion in 2019.

During the October Rebellion, over a thousand people occupied Smithfield Meat Market, Europe’s oldest and largest meat market, and dozens of people were arrested at Billingsgate Fish Market.

We organised veggie dance parties throughout London and even put a man dressed up as a broccoli on Good Morning Britain. Collectively, these actions communicated to the country that a transition to a plant-based food system is a core aspect of environmentalism.

In these protests, we modelled our nonviolent values of truth, love, courage, and faith, calling for a better world, and doing so with kindness to all. These are values which we have always continued.

The effect of this was to transform the environmental conversation in the UK, and to build strong relationships between the animal and environmental movement, which continue. What followed was many environmental organisations, including Extinction Rebellion itself, calling for a transition towards a plant-based food system.

In the process, Animal Rebellion had grown into a global movement, with a dedicated volunteer and support base, and we were set to grow, until in 2020 the COVID pandemic hit.

During the quiet of COVID, we began to diversify our campaigns. We saw that the shift of the environmental conversation opened up space to advocate for plant-based shifts in local institutions. We began by launching Plant-Based Councils, which organised residents to lobby their local councils to adopt a 100% plant-based catering policy for their meetings and events. Remarkably, many local councils signed up to this measure, including Oxford City Council, which voted for the measure unanimously.

We then went on to set up Plant-Based Universities, organising students to campaign for 100% catering at the campuses. We expected this would create huge debate, but then we started winning. Passing motions first at Stirling University, and then all over Europe. Plant-Based Universities took off, driven by powerful student energy, and is quickly changing university catering across Europe, and eventually the world.

In 2021, we re-galvanised our civil disobedience campaigns with an Animal Rebellion blockade of McDonald’s distribution centres, creating a nationwide shortage and bringing the need for a plant-based food system back into the environmental conversation.

In 2022, the environmental movement was changing. Extinction Rebellion had lost prominence, and Just Stop Oil had emerged as the leading UK influencer on climate. Following along with the shift in protest tactics in the UK, in September 2022 we organised a nonviolent civil disobedience campaign to stop the supply of dairy to UK supermarket shelves, mobilising hundreds of people to be arrested multiple times for blockading dairy distribution centres, and generating national conversation about the need to support farmers for a plant-based future.

During the disruption, a small contingent travelled to auction houses to speak with the farmers who were impacted by our protests, building relationships, explaining our actions, and making clear that we aren’t against them as people.

This was a transformative experience and led us to start Vegans Support The Farmers, a project designed to support farmers’ mental health and build relationships between the animal movement and farmers — recognising, in line with our nonviolent values, that farmers are key stakeholders in the food transition — not the enemy.

As 2022 progressed, it felt that there was a growing fatigue with the climate movement. We also began to desire to return to our roots, as people who were most motivated by the animals, to fight for them explicitly.

This connection to animals was actualised when we organised not one but two rescues of beagle puppies from MBR Acres (in June and December of 2022), a notorious puppy factory breeding animals destined for experimentation.

All this culminated in our relaunch as Animal Rising in April 2023; we disrupted the Grand National, Epsom Derby, and rescued lambs from a farm belonging to King Charles III. We made global headlines in the process, helping to lead to the biggest welfare reforms in the Grand National in more than a decade.

In 2024, the RSPCA campaign followed. We investigated 45 RSPCA Assured farms, uncovering shocking conditions. It was controversial, difficult, and opposed by parts of the movement who told us not to do it. We told the truth anyway, exposing systemic cruelty on farms carrying the UK’s highest welfare certification. Several high-profile supporters resigned in protest, including President Chris Packham.

Animal Rising’s campaign to end factory farming became the catalyst for Communities Against Factory Farming. This campaign works at the local planning level to stop new factory farms from being built. Its record so far: 100% of targeted planning applications delayed or rejected, saving an estimated 40 million animals a year.

Our End Factory Farming campaign, launched in September 2026, is a multi-year project working to bring all of this together and achieve real legislative change: phasing out factory farming in the UK by 2040.

Our Values

The Collective and its values are rooted in the philosophy, strategy, and practice of nonviolence.

• Love

  We act with kindness toward all — ourselves, other humans, animals, and nature — including those whose actions cause harm.

• Truth

  We tell the truth, always.

• Courage

  We live these values even when it is difficult, uncomfortable, or comes at personal cost. We are willing to be wrong or uncertain, and to try anyway.

• Faith

  We believe transformative change is possible and work every day to bring it closer. We hold a vision of a world where animals live free, and nature thrives — and we let that vision sustain us, even when progress feels slow or invisible.

• Wisdom

  We recognise nuance and complexity, learn from all perspectives, and resist simplistic answers. We reflect on what we do, adapt when needed, and share what we learn so the whole Collective grows stronger.

• Movement Thinking

  We think at the level of the movement, not just our own project. It’s about prioritising the mission over individuals and organisations.