Encouraging philanthropic support to improve the welfare of farmed animals EcoS Consultancy This report was produced by EcoS Consultancy Ltd for The Tubney Charitable Trust. September 2008 – May 2009 Authors: Christopher Stopes, Martin Cottingham, Simon Llewellyn, Tom MacMillan © The Tubney Charitable Trust 15th May 2009 CONFIDENTIAL EcoS Consultancy Ltd Acknowledgements 2 Executive Summary 3 1. Introduction 6 1.1 Farmed animal welfare – why it matters 6 1.2 A lasting legacy – the vision of the Tubney Charitable Trust 8 1.3 Feasibility study and prospect research – methodology used 9 2. The donor landscape 10 2.1 Current charitable support for farmed animal welfare – review 10 2.2 Online survey findings 20 2.3 Interview findings 25 2.4 The ethical case for action, and wider issues linked to the way animals are farmed 31 2.5 Obstacles and opportunities for funding farmed animal welfare 38 3. Catalysing change – making Tubney’s legacy count 44 3.1 Foundations for success 44 3.2 Increasing support from existing donors 47 3.3 Expanding the donor community 55 3.4 Priorities for action 59 4. Conclusions and recommendations 63 Annex 1 On-line survey 67 2 Interview questions 75 References 76 1 ENCOURAGING PHILANTHROPIC SUPPORT TO IMPROVE THE WELFARE OF FARMED ANIMALS CONFIDENTIAL Acknowledgements We are grateful for all the help and encouragement we received from so many people whilst we were conducting this research. Without their numerous comments, suggestions and ideas this report would not have been possible. Members of the Farm Animal Welfare Forum were particularly helpful in providing data, references, contact details and introductions to key individuals and organisations whose views we wanted to canvas. We would also like to thank everyone who gave up their time to be interviewed or to complete our on-line survey. We have drawn detailed information from a great many reports, books, articles, journals and government publications, and where cited these sources are referenced at the end of this report. Lastly, we would like to thank Sarah Ridley, Anil Patil and René Olivieri of the Tubney Charitable Trust. They have guided us through this project and the preparation of our report with wisdom, patience and good humour. ABBREVIATIONS used in this report BERR Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform DfID Department for International Development DCSF Department for Children, Schools and Families FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation, United Nations FAWF Farm Animal Welfare Forum NGO Non Governmental Organisation BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council AHWS Animal Health and Welfare Strategy (Defra) Defra Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs TCT The Tubney Charitable Trust RSPCA Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals CIWF Compassion in World Farming WSPA World Society for the Protection of Animals PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals WTO World Trade Organisation 2 CONFIDENTIAL EcoS Consultancy Ltd Executive summary The Tubney Charitable Trust is the leading UK foundation supporting charitable initiatives to improve the welfare of farmed animals. In allocating its remaining funds, it wants to leave a lasting legacy in the field of farmed animal welfare. It is hoped that a significant part of this legacy will be the implementation of Farming Tomorrow, a ten-year coordinated strategy developed in partnership between the Tubney Charitable Trust and members of a newly established coalition of organisations called the Farm Animal Welfare Forum (FAWF). If FAWF members secure sufficient funding to implement the Farming Tomorrow strategy and achieve progress against its objectives, this will represent a major milestone in strengthening the capacity of the farmed animal welfare sector. A much broader coalition of support will be needed, however, if the Tubney Charitable Trust, FAWF members and other organisations are to move towards a shared vision of a thriving food and farming system in which all farmed animals are reared with compassion, to higher levels of welfare and in ways that respect the environment. The purpose of this research has been to gauge the potential to secure wider support for farmed animal welfare, and to propose an action plan for securing that support. EcoS Consultancy Ltd compiled this report using three methods: • Desk research to assess levels of charitable spending and statutory funding for farmed animal welfare • A web-based attitudes survey circulated to charitable trusts and foundations, philanthropists, animal welfare charities, policy makers and others • In-depth interviews with a cross-section of the kind of individuals and organisations upon whose support increased giving for farmed animal welfare is likely to depend. Key desk research findings • Animal welfare accounts for only 0.5% of the £33 billion spent each year by the UK’s 3,000 leading charities and only a small fraction of this goes to farmed animal welfare • Defra spends only 6.2% of its £3.9 billion budget on animal health and welfare, and is planning to cut spending by 22% over three years • The economic downturn is likely to put further pressure on Defra budgets and to reduce the support that charities receive from companies, public donations and legacies and some charitable trusts. The main fundraising focus, in the short to medium term, should be on high net worth individuals, alternative sources of government funds such as the BBSRC, DFID and BERR; and charitable trusts. 3 ENCOURAGING PHILANTHROPIC SUPPORT TO IMPROVE THE WELFARE OF FARMED ANIMALS CONFIDENTIAL • In the longer term, funding from individuals could be increased significantly with sustained public awareness and fundraising campaigns. Key online survey findings Responses were received from 56 of 175 people to whom the survey was sent. Respondents included representatives of 19 charitable trusts and five animal welfare NGOs. • 82% of respondents believed that farmed animals have the capacity to suffer and should be treated humanely. This indicates a strong base of moral support for farm animal welfare as a cause • 79% believed that treating farmed animals well has positive links with wider societal benefits. This acknowledgement of such links suggests that organisations and charities with an interest in farmed animal welfare should be able to attract new funds from trusts whose primary interests lie in other issues. Of the 22 trusts we surveyed or interviewed, ten appear to offer scope for securing new funding • There were encouraging levels of support for the strategic priorities for improving farm animal welfare put forward in the FAWF report “Farming Tomorrow”, although some respondents would like to see more emphasis on tackling transport and slaughter issues. Key interview findings Interviews were conducted with 27 individuals representing a broad range of interests, including FAWF members, animal welfare organisations, NGOs, grant makers, high net worth individuals, donor intermediaries, celebrities, regulators and the food industry. • Interviewees were not surprised by the relatively low level of funding received by farm animal welfare charities, but most were optimistic about the prospects for increasing funding given a clear and well argued case for support • There was broad support for key elements of Farming Tomorrow: its strategic alliance between FAWF members; its adoption of a three-pronged approach targeting production, consumers and regulation; its species-specific priorities; its proposal for a farm animal welfare charter • Some favoured the incremental approach to securing change espoused by FAWF but others called for a more radical push for systemic change to bring factory farming to an end. Donor recruitment for FAWF members and other organisations and charities with an interest in farmed animal welfare will depend on finding ways to appeal both to the ‘incrementalists’ and to the ‘radicals’ through a coordinated, well communicated and differentiated strategy • Interviewees were introduced to five human and environmental issues connected to how animals are farmed: the impact of meat and dairy products on physical health; the part played by livestock production in food security; the environmental pollution caused by agriculture; the extent to which climate change is affected by emissions from farming; and the impact of changes in agriculture on rural livelihoods. All agreed to some extent that these issues provide an opportunity to make the case for farmed animal welfare initiatives stronger. 4 CONFIDENTIAL EcoS Consultancy Ltd Our consultations with the donor community and with regulatory, production and retail interests have identified broad acceptance that farmed animal welfare matters; and that efforts to improve it are worthy of charitable and public support. We encountered a variety of views on where farmed animal welfare sits within the hierarchy of philanthropic need, how better farmed animal welfare should be achieved and who is responsible for funding and effecting change. But the good news for the Tubney Charitable Trust legacy is that there is a compelling and realistic case to be made to satisfy these differing views. To ensure the effective implementation of Farming Tomorrow and optimise support for farmed animal welfare, this report concludes by recommending 12 actions to the Tubney Charitable Trust. It identifies the following as highest priority: i Create a Farmed Animal Welfare Funders’ Network to act as ambassadors for the cause and draw in support from key foundations