Animal Charity Evaluators: effective altruism in the service of animals

Animal Charity Evaluators(ACE), formerly known as Effective Animal Activism, is a U.S. registered non-profit organization dedicated to researching and promoting the most effective ways to help animals.

ACE wants to promote the concept of " effective altruism" by promoting nonprofits that save and improve the lives of animals. This decision to focus on animals is entirely justified if we assume that there are many more animals than humans. The suffering inflicted on animals to satisfy the personal interests of man is enormous.

There are countless animal charities around the world. This makes it all the more difficult to choose the animal charity to which we could imagine offering our skills or donating.

ACE helps compassionate donors, professionals and volunteers make informed decisions about how to help animals as effectively as possible by selecting highly effective organizations based on their activity, and making every donation an investment.

Indeed, there are 2 different interest groups that work for the protection of animals, namely, those who work for:

• Animal welfare: “It concerns the responsible use of animals to meet certain human needs. Whether they are pets for our enjoyment, for sporting activity, or for uses that involve death, such as food, clothing and medical research.
  Animal welfare advocates strive to ensure that all animals used by humans have their basic needs met for food, shelter and health, and that they do not suffer unnecessary suffering to provide for them. human needs ”. ( United States for Biomedical Research (SUBR) )

• Animal rights: “One of the fundamental principles of animal rights is that human beings do not have the right to use non-human animals for their own purposes , which include food, clothing, entertainment and other uses. vivisection.
  This is based on the rejection of speciesism and the knowledge that animals are sentient beings. (Doris Lin - animal rights lawyer and director of legal affairs for the Animal Care League of New Jersey )

Animal law is different from one country to another. The Swiss organization GAL (Global Animal Law) develops animal law on a global scale. Its purpose is to help and create a forum for global discussion on animal rights. It is an independent, global pioneering authority for animal health and protection in law. His approach includes the idea of “One Health” for a healthy planet where healthy humans and animals can live together in harmony. Animal health is understood as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.

Members of Animal Charity Evaluators strive to identify ways to alleviate suffering and improve the lives of animals on a large scale by opposing all systems of oppression, while continually updating recommendations based on new evidence.

Their missions:

• Find and promote the most effective ways to help animals.

• Analyze research on animal assistance methods in order to provide the best actions to carry out on interventions.

• Offer advice for effective animal advocacy and career, charity and volunteer suggestions.

• Work with other organizations to help them conduct their own research.

Based on their current results and available research, promoting farm animals appears to be the most effective way to help animals and prevent the greatest amount of suffering.

It was in 2017 that the French organization L214 Ethique & Animal entered the list of organizations selected by ACE, ranking it among the 12 most effective animal rights associations in the world.

According to the FAO, more than 150 billion animals (land & sea) are killed each year in the world for human consumption.

Research shows that, on average, a single person who becomes vegetarian avoids the suffering of 252 animals. Even modest reductions in the consumption of animal products can make a big difference when applied on a large scale.