About Advocates for Animals

Our vision is that all animals live their natural lives free from exploitation and abuse. Advocates for Animals works to secure respect for all animals, by overcoming exploitation and abuse, and inspiring a more compassionate society.

We affect positive change for animals through high profile campaigns, political lobbying, investigations and public education.

Our history reaches back over 95 years of campaigning, to when the organisation was founded in 1911. Originally named The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Vivisection, it took up the work of the late Scottish Branch of the National Anti-Vivisection Society. While the organisation remains true to it’s origins to campaign the replacement of animals in scientific procedures with non-animal alternatives, it has expanded to also work on a broad range of animal issues.The organisation was renamed Advocates for Animals in 1990 in order to more accurately reflect our work to protect all animals.

Our approach is to regard animals as sentient beings – possessing a level of awareness, and able to have feelings – as recognised by the European Union in 1997.

We believe all animals including humans have moral rights, in the sense that:

“animals are conscious creatures whose lives can be more or less enjoyable, or more or less wretched, from their own subjective point of view of which anyone of appropriate sensitivity will feel the need to take some account."

The late philosopher and Committee Member, Professor Timothy L.S. Sprigge, MA, PhD

We aim to promote all the positive aspects of the relationships between people and animals, in order to generate increased appreciation of, and empathy towards, our fellow beings. This ethos is central to all of our work.