Mission

Voters For Animal Rights’ mission is to help elect candidates who support animal protection, lobby for strong laws to stop animal cruelty, and hold elected officials accountable to humane voters.

We work to gain legally enforceable fundamental rights for animals by codifying animal rights into law. VFAR focuses exclusively on political advocacy for animals in New York. We mobilize voters and organize lobbying efforts to give a voice to animals. Through the political process, we are building a coalition of advocates seeking to strike at the root cause of animal abuse and cruelty, which is a lack of fundamental rights and laws to protect them. Check out our 2025 legislative agenda here.

We founded this organization because there is a dire need for a multi-issue political advocacy group specifically for animal protection in New York. Filling this need is especially crucial in the current political climate. If we want to stop the endless cycle of cruelty to animals, we need to change our laws to protect them in the first place — or we’ll just keep chasing our tail. (Pun intended) And to do that, we need to elect compassionate people, train animal advocates to run for office, and organize humane voters.

In the pursuit of our mission, VFAR supports diversity, equity, and inclusion of BIPOC persons (Black, indigenous, and persons of color), the LGBTQIA+ community, and gender identity equality.