Steep increase in donations to animal-rights groups

Donations to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) increased by 17% in 2006. Additionally, donations to PETA’s ‘Foundation to Support Animal Protection’ (FSAP) also posted a double-digit increase, jumping 18%.

The findings come from the 2007 Animal People Watchdog Report on 150 Animal Charities – the newspaper Animal People’s annual review of animal charity budgets. The report also revealed that the largest animal-rights activist group in the US, Humane Society for the United States (HSUS), increased donations by 9%. Importantly, this increase builds on the impressive 62% increase in donations the organisation received in 2005.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance reports that the extreme approach of PETA may have garnered markedly more funds in 2006, but some more moderate groups also made big gains. The moderate vegan group Friends of Animals (FoA) boosted donations 12%. In 2005, FoA, raised its revenues about 27%, from $3.9 mln to $5.0 mln. Outside the US, the British group, Compassion in World Farming (CWF) more than doubled its donations, exploding 114%.

Total donations to animal-rights groups expanded by about 5%, reaching $295.8 mln.