Organisations & Advocacy

Animals & Us is a ground-breaking education initiative provided by SAFE. It provides resources on animal issues for teachers and students in New Zealand secondary schools.

Our vision is that Animals & Us will advance knowledge and critical thinking about the relationship between human and non-human animals while fostering attitudes and values of compassion, respect and empathy.

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We are Australia’s leading animal protection organisation: a strong and unified voice representing millions of members and supporters. We live for kindness, we raise awareness and we shine light on animal cruelty to illuminate the pathway to a kinder world for all. We are active wherever we can create change: in Australia and around the world.

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Aotearoa Liberation League (ALL), is a decolonial justice project for Papatūānuku and all her children.

“ALL is an animal-justice group, but we see our objectives of liberating animals as inherently tied in with liberating our whenua [land] and our people,” Pere Huriwai, Co-founder

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Nau mai, haere mai. As one of the most active vegan groups in New Zealand, Vegan Christchurch reflects the excellent work undertaken by a group of dedicated members of The Christchurch Vegan Society – Te Rōpū Whēkana o Ōtautahi who run the organisation and this website.

While the organisation is run almost entirely on a voluntary basis, we provide valuable information on the importance and ease of a plant-based diet and the benefits of being vegan. Alongside this, we organise regular events, social hangouts, talks, meetings and displays as part of our educational programme, and we include many fun and social networking activities that vegans, vegetarians and those considering becoming vegan in Christchurch can enjoy.

The Christchurch Vegan Society – Te Rōpū Whēkana o Ōtautahi is made up of everyday kiwis who are just passionate about helping animals and the environment by helping to build a strong and healthy vegan community. We help people go vegan and stay vegan.

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Ed Winters is a vegan educator, best-selling author, public speaker and content creator. Ed has spoken at over 1/3 of UK universities and at every Ivy league college, including as a guest lecturer at Harvard University in  2019 and 2020. In 2022, Ed began teaching as a Media & Design Fellow at Harvard.

He has given speeches across the world, including at the University of Cambridge, EPFL, Pinterest, LinkedIn, American Express, Google NYC, Google Ireland and Google Zürich. In early 2019 he gave 2 TEDx talks, surpassing a total of 2.3 million views online. His speech “You Will Never Look at Your Life in the Same Way Again” has 35 million accumulative views online and has been given to thousands of students across UK universities.

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HUHA – Helping You Help Animals – is a charitable trust and New Zealand’s leading no-kill animal shelter. Since our founding in 2001, we’ve advocated for, rescued, rehabilitated, rehomed and released tens of thousands of domestic and wild animals in need. Together, we save lives!

From rescuing and liberating animals to preventing abuse and neglect from happening, HUHA takes an integrated and community-driven approach to improving animal welfare. HUHA is committed to being there for animals when natural disasters strike. Alongside a caring community we advocate for animals and work tirelessly to release animals from the cruelties of factory farming, lab testing, racing, circuses and zoos.  

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My name’s Jamie Logan and I’m an animal advocate, YouTuber, Filmmaker, Content Creator and Podcast Host. I’m based in NYC and I make videos that get people thinking—Some call it ruining lives and pushing my agenda but I like to think of it as sharing an obvious truth that most people tend to ignore.

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My name is Joey Carbstrong and I’m a former gang member and current animal rights activist. I went vegan after turning my life around in 2013. I had a burning desire to make a difference and since uploading my first YouTube video i 2015, my activism has evolved quite a lot. I’m really passionate about creating awareness about the needless abuse that animals endure and my goal is to help create a vegan world. I hope my website offers you inspiration and motivation to go vegan and to hopefully join me in being a strong voice for the animals. I really do believe that together we can make a huge difference on earth while we are here.

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Inspiring compassion. Ending cruelty. Our mission is to end industrial animal agriculture by constructing a just and sustainable food system.

Imagine a world free of cruelty, a world in which we nurture our bodies, minds, and spirits with wholesome, healthy food that is kind to animals and sustainable for our planet. Mercy For Animals believes that world is possible. In fact, it is inevitable if we work together to elevate humanity to its fullest potential.

Read more about how veganism is undeniably linked to other social justice issues.

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The New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies (NZCHAS) brings together scholars from the humanities and social sciences whose research and teaching are concerned with the conceptual and material treatment of nonhuman animals in culture, society and history. The Centre includes members from many disciplines at the University of Canterbury, and associates from throughout New Zealand who have expertise in cultural studies, literary studies, political science, sociology, architecture, the visual arts and Māori studies. Our international associates include many of scholars recognised as world leaders in human-animal studies, and the Centre has links with the primary overseas institutions and networks in this field. 

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The New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society (NZAVS) is Aotearoa’s primary charity defending animals used in science. We work to end animal experimentation and the harmful use of animals in science in NZ and have been fighting to end animal testing since 1978!

We’re most well-known for our involvement in the renowned campaigns that successfully banned the testing of cosmetics and legal highs on animals in NZ.

We are creating a world where:

• No animals are subject to cruel and painful experiments.
• People no longer believe that animals are appropriate models for human medical research and product safety testing.
• Viable and non-harmful scientific methods are always used.
• No more time or money is wasted on fruitless research.
• Human and animal health thrive.
• Science is upheld to its fullest integrity.

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Ryuji Chua is a filmmaker and animal advocate focused on challenging how we think about and treat animals through education.

He’s been a guest speaker at schools like the University of Warwick and the University of Chicago, produced videos for leading animal rights organizations like Surge, Sentient Media and Faunalytics, and was featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to talk about animal ethics and his independent documentary “How Conscious Can a Fish Be?”

He currently serves as an advisor for Vegan Hacktivists.

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New Zealand’s leading animal rights charity. SAFE’s vision is a world where animal rights are valued. We work to achieve that vision through our mission to end the exploitation of animals.

That future isn’t far away. With the help of our supporters, every day we are making massive wins for thousands of animals, and each step forward brings us closer to an Aotearoa where all animals matter.

Animals need us. They suffer in many unseen ways in our society. We are committed to working with society to present positive solutions that will end animal cruelty. Our strategic projects, programmes and activities are designed to create an Aotearoa that is kind to all animals.

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Born and raised in Lebanon, Seb Alex moved to Europe to pursue his career in Sustainable Architecture. Having worked with the UNHCR’s refugee program for a year, he then took the opportunity to enter the corporate world and work as an international coordinator of projects for an architecture company in Barcelona. A year after, he decided to leave his corporate life behind and dedicate all his time to Animal Rights Advocacy. 

During the past years, Seb has given animal rights advocacy workshops to over 1300+ activists across Europe, Middle East and Australia, has helped launched the world’s first animal rights and vegan support center, and has published the FREE Ebook ”When Animal Rights & Logic Meet” in 20 languages. Since 2019, Seb has given lectures in over 2/3 of universities in The Netherlands and more than 40 universities and schools in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom and Portugal, reaching more than 5000 students between the ages of 13 and 30.

Currently, Seb concentrates on social media content creation and gives lectures on Animal Rights, Ethics & Sustainability in universities and schools. He is also the founder of the Middle East Vegan Society, a non-profit organisation concentrating on the growth of veganism in the Middle East and North Africa using educational and corporate outreach.

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The Sanctuary is an animal refuge run by Shawn Bishop and Michael Dixon in Matakana, New Zealand. We provide a safe haven for abused and neglected animals, and care for injured or orphaned native birds. A charitable trust has been established for this purpose.

We work long hours, and we fund the ongoing costs of food and veterinary care ourselves. On arrival our animals require intensive care and lots of TLC, but one of the most rewarding returns for all our hard work is watching a native bird soar away back to its natural life in the wild. Even our permanent residents are continually amazing us. Once they’ve overcome their fear – perceiving us at first as being just more humans to mistreat them – they become gentle, trusting and caring. Animals can teach us a lot about forgiveness and being able to love and trust again.

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The Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary is a safe and sustainable space to rehabilitate and re-home abused, injured and neglected animals.

We are a relatively new sanctuary on 26 acres of land at Ōtaki Forks, an hour’s drive north of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Set up by the Animal Protection Society, The Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary operates according to animal rights principles and promotes animal liberation through their work. The Sanctuary’s main sources of funding are the Opportunity for Animals Opshops.

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The Vegan Society works to help more people become vegan with confidence, encourage more trusted Vegan Society Trademarked products to be available in shops, and take veganism to the mainstream. It provides information and guidance on various aspects of veganism for new and potential vegans, caterers, healthcare professionals, educators and the media. It also co-ordinates a variety of campaigns to raise awareness of the lifestyle.

The Vegan Society is the oldest vegan organisation in the world and was founded in 1944. At the establishment of the Society, founder Donald Watson and his wife coined the term ‘vegan’ to describe the lifestyle of what were then called the non-dairy vegetarians. The word ‘vegan’ was created from the first and last letters of ‘vegetarian’.

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Tash is a passionate animal rights activist based in Perth, Western Australia. She has been vegan and an animal rights activist since 2017. Tash turned to veganism when she became aware of the inherent animal cruelty in industries (meat, dairy, eggs etc.) that rape, abuse, torture, enslave and murder non-human animals for their flesh, milk and eggs, as well as industries that abuse them such as entertainment, clothing, fashion, racing and testing.

Tash is known for her unique and controversial style of disruptive activism, which she believes to be essential for social change because civil disobedience generates attention to animal rights via media attention. Tash has protested inside butchers, restaurants, fast food chains, supermarkets, fashion stores and cattle events. She has also ran onto a football stadium holding a “Right to Rescue” flag to highlight the unjust laws that criminalise activists for exposing animal abuse and liberating animals from places of violence.

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The Vegan Society of Aotearoa New Zealand is a national charity that encourages and supports vegans and vegan options. We support vegan businesses via our Vegan Awards Program and our Business Membership Scheme which recognise, promote and reward vegan business.

We celebrate, advocate and promote at an international, national and local level so that veganism appears positively in the media, with policy makers and in the minds of the public. We educate people in ways that support their choices via our 21 Day Challenge, public talks, public events and vast online resources.

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Viva! is the UK’s leading vegan campaigning charity, specialising in undercover investigations and high-profile animal campaigns. Founded in 1994 by Juliet Gellatley, we have spent almost 30 years creating a kinder, more sustainable world for humans and animals alike.

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