Two Major Groups Merge Forces to Fight for Animals

Animal-rights organizations Compassion Over Killing (COK) and Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) signed a cooperative agreement last week. The two organizations will now work together to strengthen the animal-rights movement, with COK taking over several FARM initiatives, including Have We Been Lied To? Tour (previously known as the 10 Billion Lives Tour), Online Views, Vegan Support (including Meatout Mondays e-newsletter), the Meatout campaign, and World Day for Farmed Animals. COK has hired several FARM employees to help to merge the campaigns. “As part of overseeing these programs,” COK executive director Erica Meier said, “COK will continue to expand and strengthen its work to advocate for farmed animals and promote vegan eating through hard-hitting undercover investigations, innovative legal advocacy, empowering vegan outreach and support, [and] corporate campaigns.” FARM—the oldest animal-rights organization in the United States—was co-founded by holocaust survivor Alex Hershaft in 1976, while COK was founded in 1995 and has since released a number of undercover investigations that have exposed (and in many cases pushed businesses to eliminate) many cruel practices in the animal-agriculture industry.