Dear Animal Outlook Community,

Thanks to supporters like you, the team at Animal Outlook has had much to celebrate over the past year, despite the difficulties and tragedies we’ve all experienced as a global community during this time. Looking back on the past year, I’m filled with gratitude for the impact for animals we’ve made: through our truth-exposing undercover investigations, groundbreaking legal filings and victories, shifting major corporations into more vegan supply lines and engaging with people all over our country to empower them to live their compassionate values. Most of all, however, my gratitude stems from the spirit of our team and our supporters as they’ve dedicated themselves to the transformative work that we do here at Animal Outlook. Our work impacts not only the animals, but also ourselves: our compassion for animals elevates how we see ourselves as people. Especially during such challenging times, it is remarkable how the people who comprise our team here at Animal Outlook have persevered and continued to innovate and to build strategies for change. Our team and our work has grown as a result.

One growth moment for me was my appointment as Executive Director of Animal Outlook in late 2020. I began my tenure here in 2006 as General Counsel, working alongside a small team helmed by Erica Meier. I’ve had the privilege of watching the organization transform from a small grassroots organization making its way through largely untested waters, into a national voice for farmed animals. Back then, we were conducting some of the earliest undercover investigations, lawsuits, vegan-focused outreach, and corporate actions against big animal ag; now, we are widely recognized for  our dozens of victories and path-blazing “firsts.” I’ve also watched the animal protection movement and the cultural salience of vegan values grow and succeed beyond what I could have possibly expected 15 years ago. Over the years, we’ve been a part of a cultural reckoning, empowering so many to stand up for animals, and sharpening our skills and impact. Still, we have a lot of important work ahead of us.

It is against that backdrop and with bittersweet feelings that I see Erica’s resignation as the end of one chapter and the beginning of something new. 

I am incredibly grateful and appreciative for what Erica has meant to this organization, the movement, the animals, and for me personally over the years. Instead of watering down the stark truths about the plight of animals and ideas about how to help them, she’s helped move the world into that perspective, making real change in the way the food industry and our culture at large thinks and behaves. It is that legacy that will carry forward and grow in its impact and influence. Erica has earned her place in the history of the animal protection movement, and I invite you to join me in celebrating Erica and thanking her for her dedication, intelligence and compassion. 

As we enter the next era for Animal Outlook, my hope is that each of you will join me and consider yourselves a vital member of the Animal Outlook community, contributing to our vision of realizing a compassionate food system, untethered from animals, that empowers people to live their values.

Animals are counting on all of us to stand up for them. Your support today will help fuel our fight to disrupt Big Ag and inspire compassion. 

Photo by Mark Nicholas

Together for the animals,

Cheryl Leahy
Executive Director