I discovered Friends of Animals while walking my dog many years ago. A fellow dog lover informed me that I could have Max neutered through the low-cost spay-neuter program run by Friends of Animals for well over 50 years. F of A referred me to a participating veterinarian in my neighborhood. I paid a very low fee and Friends of Animals covered the rest. I assume the doctor did not charge Friends of Animals the full cost. Either way, my dog became a client until he passed away at age 14. Since that time, i donate to the Spay Neuter Fund each year. I also donate to Primarily Primates, a sanctuary I supported before Friends of Animals took it over. I do not donate for Friends of Animals' vegan, anti-fur and anti-hunting campaigns, though I respect the group for being truthful in it's mailings about it's positions on the issues. Transparency is essential and so is efficient use of my donations. F of A does not use for-profit solicitation firms and earns high grades from Charity Watch and other evaluators.
Friends of Animals is one of the rare organizations that truly embodies its mission and principles in all of its actions. Since I first discovered FoA in 2007, I have witnessed their perseverance on a number of issues pay off in terms of greater protections for animals. Their ability to work on multiple fronts of animal rights is impressive: from their long-standing and expansive work on cats and dogs spay/neuter programs to wild animals in the US and abroad, they are championing a clear and unwavering principled commitment to freeing animals from human interference and human-perpetrated violence.
I came to FoA’s work having gone through multiple personal transformations, over 15 years, about being vegan and eliminating animal products from all aspects of my life. But, FoA’s understanding of animals rights and the institutionalized forms of violence against animals helped me to deepen my commitment to the vegan moral perspective. This perspective and understanding of animal rights is applied with great clarity throughout their diverse programming: animal advocacy, activism for legal protections and bans, and their vegan awareness raising, and the direct support they provide to animal sanctuaries in the US and abroad.
Finally, I think Friends of Animals is poised for leadership into the future of animal rights. Social norms are shifting globally, and in accelerated way in the United States, away from use of animals in meeting human needs while additional consensus is being reached on the linkages between environmental degradation, animal industry and climate change. People are looking for a vision of animal rights that is in sync with people’s beliefs and that does not compromise the rights-based approach’s most deeply held principles. Friends of Animals, with its principled approach and single-minded focus on supporting concrete programs that benefit animals, offers such a vision.
Review from Guidestar
