Founding Compassion Over Killing / Animal Outlook: A 30-Year Look Back
19th century abolitionist and animal advocate William Wilberforce noted, “If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.”
That sentiment resonated with me from an early age. I, too, was one of those “incurable fanatics” — or as animal advocates are sometimes derisively called, a humane-iac.
So, in 1995 — 30 years ago this month — I found myself troubled that my Washington, DC high school lacked an animal protection club. I tracked down a teacher sponsor, filled out the necessary forms, and founded Compassion Over Killing (COK) — today known as Animal Outlook (AO). At the time, I couldn’t have imagined how that simple act would alter the trajectory of my life.
What began as a high school-wide campaign to promote the protection of animals quickly grew into a city-wide grassroots effort, drawing far more adult volunteers than students. Our demonstrations against animal exploitation — in circuses, in the fur trade, and more — soon numbered in the hundreds of people. Clearly, we were meeting an unmet need for those seeking to give a voice to animals in the nation’s capital.
Goodbye Earrings, Hello Suits
A year later, I had the good fortune to meet Miyun Park, who convinced me that COK needed to professionalize — starting with myself. Soon my cargo shorts and earrings gave way to shirts and ties. Together we applied for IRS nonprofit status and formed a board of directors, including leaders like Peter Petersan and Steve Cucolo. I remained the director; Miyun became president. Our campaigns expanded into shareholder activism targeting fur-selling department stores and beyond.
During my college years, COK still lacked the funds to employ anyone. But our core group of volunteer leaders — including Suzanne McMillan, Sarah Clifton, Nova Patch, Lance Morosini, Patrick Brothers, Dawn Ratcliffe, Shauna Helton, Ariana Huemer, and others — ushered in a new era. To help the greatest number of animals used by humanity, we became laser-focused on the plight of farmed animals. Out went the confrontational fur-store sit-ins; in came friendly “feed-ins” at fast-food restaurants, where passersby could taste a kinder future.
By 2001, after running COK for six years as a volunteer, I neared the end of college and faced a question: could I make this my full-time work? Who would pay me? Incredibly, a heroic volunteer named Rich Peppin stepped forward to fund my first full-time salary — $16,000 a year, just enough to meet my needs.
With that, we grew. Rather than reaching one passerby at a time, we began reaching millions — through websites, TV ads (some banned for being “too controversial”), a mobile rolling theater, and eventually, undercover investigations.
America’s Early Undercover Investigations and Open Rescues at Factory Farms
A speech by Patty Mark from Australia in 2001 inspired us to begin clandestinely documenting the routine mistreatment of animals used for food — and to conduct the early open rescues in the U.S. Based on our investigations, we produced documentaries like Hope for the Hopeless about battery cages, The Auction Block about livestock auctions, and 45 Days about broiler chickens.
Our first investigation and open rescue in 2001 gained coverage in The Washington Post and beyond, shining a national spotlight on a topic then-largely ignored by mainstream animal-welfare groups. The New York Times in 2002 even ran a headline declaring: “Advocates for Animals Turn Attention to Chickens.” We felt like the world was finally seeing what had been hidden for too long.
That visibility brought more support and allowed us to grow our staff. Miyun became our second hire, followed by Josh Balk and Carter Dillard. Josh went undercover as an investigator in the poultry industry; Carter filed false-advertising complaints over misleading “humane” claims on egg packaging. By 2003, The Washington Post profiled us in a front-page Style-section feature: “Animal Pragmatism: Compassion Over Killing Wants to Make the Anti-Meat Message a Little More Palatable.”
Our efforts paid off: we won our federal complaint against the egg industry’s “Animal Care Certified” label, forcing changes to egg carton claims in virtually every grocery store in America. Ads of ours once banned were finally cleared for TV. We persuaded restaurants to add plant-based options, including one Korean restaurant that went entirely vegan.
With so much media attention on farmed animal welfare — especially the treatment of chickens — the biggest animal groups were now ready to start expending their resources on what was once seen as a third-rail issue.
The Aftermath
In 2005, 10 years after COK’s modest founding, all four of us working full-time at the now-national organization departed together to continue our work for animals at America’s largest animal protection group, The Humane Society of the United States. We appointed COK volunteer Erica Meier as the new executive director, leaving the organization in her hands. In this new chapter on a broader national stage, we devoted ourselves fully to waging statewide ballot measures across the country and other campaigns to start banning the worst abuses of farmed animals.
A decade later Quartz would come to headline about our work in 2016, “How the vegan movement broke out of its echo chamber and finally started disrupting things.” Slate published a similar story that same year subtitled: “A few decades ago, no one cared about chicken welfare. Now all our eggs are about to be cage-free. Why?”
Eventually, Miyun, Josh, Carter, and I came to professionally go our separate ways, though each of us still today is focusing our careers and lives on helping animals, albeit via different strategies.
Innovation as Advocacy
Looking back on the past three decades, it’s hard not to feel like we lived through a golden era of animal advocacy during which we really felt like we had the power to create a society for animals in which they’re no longer viewed as mere commodities, but rather are treated with compassion and respect. I certainly still feel that such a world is possible. We made substantial progress especially in combating some of the worst forms of farmed animal abuses. Yet the reality remains: meat demand has only continued to grow, causing humanity today to raise more animals for food than ever before.
When I founded COK/AO in 1995, six billion land animals were entering American slaughterhouses annually. Today, that number is closer to 10 billion. And globally the same trend has continued. This is one reason Animal Liberation author Peter Singer believes that if animals could ask him one question, it would be: “Why have you failed?”
Good Intentions or Good Inventions?
I remain supportive and passionate about conventional animal advocacy and its ability to make life better for the animals with whom we share this planet. Yet I can’t help but feel that new technologies are more likely to end various forms of animal exploitation than humane campaigns are. Both are critical, but this sentiment is the reason I’ve devoted much of the last decade of my life to promoting and advancing animal-friendly technologies, including methods of satiating humanity’s seemingly insatiable meat-tooth with far fewer animals. Both as an author and entrepreneur, I hope that this chapter of my life will be more successful at helping wean our species off of the factory farming of animals.
I’m grateful to the numerous animal advocates who helped build COK during my decade there. I’m also grateful to the animal advocates around the world who came both before and after us and are still today working to effectuate a better world for animals.
Words can’t describe how fortunate I feel to have had the honor over the past 30 years of working alongside so many talented and dedicated people who are devoting their lives to billions of individuals who will never thank them nor even know they existed.
It’s been a wild 30 years since COK’s founding. My hope is that the next 30 will make an even bigger dent in animal suffering — and I believe they can, whether through advocacy, innovation, or some other force for social change.
In Wilberforce’s time and ours, caring so deeply about the suffering of animals is enough to render one a “fanatic.” My aspiration is to help create a world where such “fanaticism” for compassionate treatment of animals is no longer the exception, but the norm.
Paul Shapiro is the founder of Compassion Over Killing, now Animal Outlook. He’s also the CEO of The Better Meat Co., author of Clean Meat, and host of the Business for Good Podcast.
