Animal Partisan

Directions Website Contact the organization

Animal Partisan Throwing a wrench in the gears of animal exploitation. The situation for most animals in this country is bleak. We have an urgent obligation to resist.

Despite meaningful victories by the animal rights movement over the past several decades, the number of animals slaughtered, exploited, and subjected to abuse continues to rise. The animal agribusiness and research industries are developing new methods that harm animals, including genetic modifications, faster slaughter lines, more gruesome experiments, and larger confinement facilities. While many believe that the country is becoming more humane, the truth is that animals suffer now like never before. Although these government-backed industries possess financial, political, and human resources that surpass every animal protection organization combined, the history of conflict is laden with examples of small, tenacious groups that stymied and frustrated larger opponents. We’re a nonprofit legal advocacy organization focused on disrupting and weakening the primary industries of animal exploitation in the United States by discovering, revealing, and challenging unlawful conduct no matter its form. We strive to embody the principles of partisan resistance in a non-violent manner by selectively, aggressively, and creatively engaging in legal advocacy actions aimed at undermining the ability of these industries to abuse and exploit animals. We strive to make cruel practices less profitable, divert resources used to exploit animals, and degrade public confidence in these industries. To alleviate animal suffering, we’ll explore every corner of the legal system upon which these industries must comply—including animal welfare, food safety, permits, accreditation, zoning, environmental, administrative, procedural, business contracts, financial, criminal, and others. We also believe that the world needs more attorneys dedicated to challenging these systems of animal abuse and exploitation. We work to amplify our value beyond direct legal action by mentoring, empowering, and creating opportunities for law students and attorneys to challenge the animal agriculture and research industries.

Behind every bite of foie gras, ducks are paying the price.At Hudson Valley Foie Gras in upstate New York, ducks are for...
10/09/2026

Behind every bite of foie gras, ducks are paying the price.

At Hudson Valley Foie Gras in upstate New York, ducks are force-fed multiple times a day over a period of about 3 weeks to produce the “fattened liver” considered a luxury food item.

Animal Partisan has filed a complaint with the Department of Justice, urging it to prosecute the company for violating the federal Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act by force-feeding ducks. The PACT Act, passed into law in 2019, prohibits a wide range of conduct committed against animals including crushing, drowning, suffocating and impaling animals. Recent convictions under the law have related to torturing monkeys and burning a puppy alive.

Workers insert a long, rigid metal tube down each duck’s esophagus and pump high-calorie feed into their digestive tract. The process is intended to cause disease and severely enlarge the liver. It can also cause injuries to the esophagus, impaired breathing, reduced mobility, pain, and other physical harm.

Animal Partisan’s complaint argues that force-feeding causes “serious bodily injury,” and is, therefore, "animal crushing" under the PACT Act, and that it does not qualify as a “customary and normal” agricultural practice exempt from the law.

These ducks are not luxury products. They are living, feeling individuals who experience pain, fear, and distress. Intentionally causing disease to their organs by force-feeding them well beyond what they would eat naturally is cruel.

Take Action: Pro-Animal Future () has been hard to work to ban this practice in cities across the country. Learn more about their efforts to end the sale of force-fed foie gras in Washington, D.C., and Denver, Colorado. Visit ⁠Pro-Animal D.C. () and ⁠Pro-Animal Colorado's () websites to learn more and get involved.

We challenged a beef producer's "organic" claims. Now they're gone. After finding that Cottonwood Ranch, a beef produce...
10/07/2026

We challenged a beef producer's "organic" claims. Now they're gone.

After finding that Cottonwood Ranch, a beef producer in Virginia, repeatedly advertised its beef as “organic” while acknowledging that it was in fact not certified organic, we filed a complaint with the USDA's National Organic Program. The company used “organic” at least 24 separate times on its website to market and sell beef across parts of Virginia and Maryland.

Labels like "organic" can create an image for consumers of a more compassionate animal agriculture system. In fact, a 2023 study by Faunalytics of 1,000 consumers revealed that 89% of people who purchased an animal product with a welfare label like "organic" did so because they thought it indicated better welfare practices. Separate research from the USDA Economic Research Service found that consumers were willing to pay more for "organic" beef than conventional beef.

But marketing claims are not the same thing as meaningful protections for animals, especially when they are misused.

Animal Partisan formally challenged Cottonwood Ranch’s use of “organic” as a violation of the federal Organic Foods Production Act. Following our complaint, the company quickly removed the "organic" claims from its website.

Humanewashing isn’t limited to the biggest corporations. Small, local, and family-owned producers may also use marketing to create a more compassionate image of animal agriculture:

- Words like “organic” shape how consumers see animal agriculture. They can make an inherently harmful system appear more compassionate without changing the fact that animals are being raised and killed for food.
- Marketing should not replace accountability. Producers should not be able to rely on feel-good language to create an image of humane treatment while consumers are left without a clear picture of what happens to the animals.

Animal agriculture has spent decades finding ways to make the exploitation of animals more palatable to consumers. We’re here to challenge the claims that help keep that system running.

If you agree this is wrong, help us keep fighting back. Donate to fuel Animal Partisan’s legal advocacy. Link in bio to support.

Win-A-Nell Custom Butchering and Meats is now a convicted animal abuser.On October 2, the Adams County, Pennsylvania sla...
10/05/2026

Win-A-Nell Custom Butchering and Meats is now a convicted animal abuser.

On October 2, the Adams County, Pennsylvania slaughterhouse pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals, following a private criminal complaint filed in court by Animal Partisan. The complaint relied on government records, including many obtained through FOIA.

This case started in March with a federal inspection. A USDA inspector monitoring slaughter operations documented a worker climb onto a pig, kick another in the face, and electrically prod a third pig in the face. Despite the suspension, the USDA allowed the slaughterhouse to go back to business two days later.

While the monetary penalty from this conviction is inconsequential, the case affirms that businesses—including federally inspected slaughterhouses—are not immune from criminal punishment. These businesses are bound by the same cruelty laws as everyone else. But too often, when they break those laws, the consequences amount to a paperwork exercise: a corrective action plan, a short pause, and more business as usual.

A two-day suspension isn't accountability. But a criminal conviction is a start.

Take action: Sign up for our newsletter at animalpartisan.org/newsletter to support our work and stay up to date on our legal advocacy.

10/02/2026

At Green Dragon Market in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, Animal Partisan and documented animals crowded into wire cages and makeshift enclosures, waiting to be bought and sold.

Different species, different stories, but all treated as products with a price.

After they are sold in auction, we don’t know where they went or what happened to them.

What we do know is that they were living beings, confined and sold as commodities. Their lives reduced to transactions and utility rather than sentient individuals with their own needs, preferences, and capacity to feel.

Take action: Follow Animal Partisan and share this post to expose what these animals endure.

09/25/2026

Suffering doesn’t become acceptable because an animal is sold at a live market instead of a factory farm.

A recent investigation into several live markets in Passaic, New Jersey, documented birds confined in crowded, unsanitary cages, with some having little or no access to water. The investigation was conducted in partnership with .

Animal Partisan filed a complaint with the City of Passaic, urging officials to enforce city code requiring adequate water, sanitary conditions, roosts, and sufficient space for the birds.

The city inspected the businesses and ordered them to reduce crowding but deemed the other allegations “invalid.”

These animals deserved more than to be left suffering in cages. Watch and share this video to help expose what happens behind the doors of live markets.

These animals are subjected to brutal experiments—but you won't find them in a traditional lab. They're confined to the ...
09/23/2026

These animals are subjected to brutal experiments—but you won't find them in a traditional lab. They're confined to the factory farms operating on the outskirts of some college campuses.

Our new report, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘴: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘍𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘈𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, used public records from 10 AAALAC-accredited public universities to uncover the lives of the 97,448 farmed animals used in a single year in agricultural experiments, teaching, and campus meat and dairy production.

Intentional exposure to smoke, acute heat stress, painful infections, colostrum deprivation, and ventilation shutdown are just a handful of the distressing experiments uncovered in our research that farmed animals were forced to endure. Many of these animals are then slaughtered on campus, and their meat, milk, and eggs are sold under university brand names—likely to students and other customers who have no idea.

Read the full report here:https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6318c476cc6cdb6a4beac1b7/t/6ab32beb367ac61f677b9e10/1790127083239/The+Worst+of+Both+Worlds+Report+9.23.26.pdf

With the U.S. pork industry centered in the Midwest, legal and policy debates on that industry are of great importance f...
09/17/2026

With the U.S. pork industry centered in the Midwest, legal and policy debates on that industry are of great importance for the area but sometimes never reach beyond Washington, DC. The Oklahoma Bar Journal—the official publication of the Oklahoma Bar Association that reaches 16,000 attorneys, judges, legislators, and others—just published an article from two of our attorneys detailing the implications on a pending regulatory action related to pig slaughter.

Read the article: https://www.okbar.org/why-oklahoma-should-care-about-usdas-pork-line-speed-proposal/

Last week, we sued Rahal Biosciences, Inc. for misrepresenting the animal welfare practices and human health benefits as...
09/15/2026

Last week, we sued Rahal Biosciences, Inc. for misrepresenting the animal welfare practices and human health benefits associated with its bovine colostrum supplement, ARMRA, The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, seeks to end ARMRA’s misleading and deceptive advertising and protect consumers. Animal Partisan is represented by Richman Law & Policy.

Bovine colostrum is the milk produced by mother cows in the first several days following birth and is critical for the immune protection and nutrition of vulnerable calves. The sale of bovine colostrum as a human health supplement—an industry only loosely regulated by the Food and Drug Administration—is rapidly increasing both in the United States and globally. One source estimates the U.S. colostrum industry generated $1.1 billion in revenue in 2025.

Our lawsuit challenges ARMRA's animal welfare and human health representations. Read more about the case at animalpartisan.org/news.

Join us for Towards Enforcement of Animal Protection Laws: Deploying Private Prosecutions for Animals in the US and Cana...
09/14/2026

Join us for Towards Enforcement of Animal Protection Laws: Deploying Private Prosecutions for Animals in the US and Canada at the Animal Law & Advocacy Conference, hosted by Animal Justice ().

Sunday, October 4
12:50 p.m. - 1:35 p.m. EDT

Will Lowrey, Legal Counsel of Animal Partisan, will join Alexandra Pester, Senior Staff Lawyer at Animal Justice for a panel discussion on how animal law advocates in Canada and the United States are using private prosecutions to address gaps in the public enforcement of already-weak animal protection laws. Will and Alexandra will examine the strategic benefits and challenges of stepping into the prosecutor’s role, drawing on Canada’s first farmed animal private prosecution and recent U.S. cases, including one that secured liability against a major chicken producer. The panel will consider the promise and uncertainty of this largely untested tool for holding animal-use industries accountable and disrupting ineffective enforcement systems.

Registration for the Animal Law & Advocacy Conference is open at https://www.alaconference.ca/. In-person registration closes Sept 24, 11:50 p.m. EDT.

Address

405 E. Laburnum Avenue, Suite 3 #44
Richmond, VA
23222

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Animal Partisan posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Animal Partisan:

Shortcuts

Share

Category