The Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS will use the $20,000 grant to investigate factory farming industries and produce a report on the major Australian players. The report will provide a comprehensive view of industry operations, their current drivers and the strategies they use to market their products and influence government, public opinion and societal trends.
Animal Liberation Queensland received a $15,000 grant to develop two creative and engaging TV commercials. Targeting a captive daily audience on networks Seven, Nine, and Ten, the TV commercials will be shown on morning news shows and capitalise on the growing public awareness against the purchase of caged eggs.
Lawyers for Animals (LFA) was awarded $15,000 to create a series of six print advertisements for the popular, free community newspaper MX. The ads will use the Old McDonald’s Farm theme to draw attention to facts about the suffering of pigs, chickens and dairy cows and direct readers to the LFA website for further information.
RSPCA Queensland will use the $10,000 grant to develop a public awareness campaign, Choose to End Cruelty, focusing on the plight of factory farmed meat chickens (broilers). The campaign aims to empower the community to become a force for change. The campaign will also lobby retailers and restaurateurs to consider more ethical food sourcing, and lobby legislators to provide improved legal protections for poultry.
Holroyd City Council partnered with local primary and high school students in a competition titled Too Cruel for School. The $6,000 grant will develop key animal protection messages designed to generate compassion for animals. Three winning messages will be professionally produced on postcards, posters and stickers for distribution to students and the community. The schools which successfully create the winning messages will also be awarded $500 to establish a Too Cruel for School Animal Club.
The Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS received $5,000 for a scoping study to identify whether the government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) may have undesirable consequences for farm animals and, if so, identify what impacts there may be. The CPRS, designed to reduce Australia’s carbon pollution, currently excludes agriculture and livestock emissions from its inventory.
To find out more about any of these projects, visit the 2009 grants program pages.
Grants awarded: 2008
Action for Animals received a grant of $20,000 for a TV commercial project entitled: “If you knew...”. Inspired by a highly effective series of ads made by US organisation Compassion Over Killing, Action for Animals will produce and broadcast a powerful 30 second TV commercial exposing the cruelty endured by farmed animals in Australia. The commercial will direct viewers to a website containing information about making the transition to a cruelty-free diet.
Animal Liberation Queensland were awarded a grant of $11,000 for their ‘What’s wrong with factory farming?’ project. They will produce and distribute two brochures entitled ‘What’s Wrong with Factory Farmed Pigs?’ and ‘What’s Wrong with Battery Hens?’ to supplement the informative and eye-catching ‘What’s Wrong with Broiler Chickens?’ brochure that they have already made. The brochures will be distributed at major locations, events and festivals throughout south-east Queensland. Three free-standing banners will also be created to complement and promote the brochures.
Brightside Farm Sanctuary in Tasmania was awarded the hotly contested People's Choice! Award of $10,000 for their project to construct a ‘Compassion Trail’. The trail will lead visitors and school students through paddocks and animal habitats, give them an insight into the animals’ lives, provide information and photographs detailing the cruel facts about factory farming and encourage people to make more humane choices.
RMIT University received the Against Factory Farming Grant and $21,000 for their project entitled: "What factors lead Australians to support or actively reject factory farming?". There is a lack of sound academic research on Australian opinions, values and norms towards farm animals and factory farming. As a necessary first step in increasing awareness and changing attitudes, RMIT University will research and analyse existing levels of awareness, attitudes and the factors that motivate individuals to support or actively reject factory farming. A detailed report of the findings will be prepared.
Grants awarded: 2007
A $1,500 Grant will enable the illustration and editing of Andy Carnahan’s short story about a wise hen who started a revolution that ended battery farming. The goal of the project is to educate readers about the inherent cruelty of the battery cage system and to encourage them to make humane choices as consumers. The book will be made available as a PDF to be freely downloaded.
Animal Liberation Queensland received a $1,000 donation for ‘Hatching, not dispatching chickens’, a project involving the production of a DVD showing the complete life-cycle of chickens, including hatching and the early stages of a chick’s life. The DVD is intended to provide a humane educational alternative to the current practice of using live chicken hatching projects in Queensland’s primary school classrooms.
Edgar’s Mission received a $1,000 donation for their program entitled: ‘On the Road, Community Awareness and Outreach’ which involves the coordination of state-wide visits and presentations by the Edgar’s Mission team at community markets and events as well as schools and festivals. The goal of Edgar’s Mission is to increase the community’s awareness of the plight of farm animals – particularly factory farmed animals, and to encourage people to make compassionate food choices.
Grants awarded: 2006
Animal Liberation ACT received a $10,000 grant for their project - Free Range Canberra 2007 – ‘the endgame’. The goal of this project is to convince the ACT Legislative Assembly to take notice of the views of the people of Canberra and ban the use of battery cages. This will be achieved by raising public awareness, facilitating ways the public can approach politicians and lobbying politicians directly. (This project was generously sponsored by Morinda Australia).
Edgar’s Mission received a $1,000 donation for their ‘Public Outreach Program’. Edgar’s Mission is a farm sanctuary in Victoria. The purpose of this project is to create an ‘Edgar’s Mission’ presence at community events, schools and markets and to provide interactive tours of Edgar’s Mission.
Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland received $20,000 for their ‘Human Battery Cage Campaign’ which uses a kind of installation art with oversize battery cages containing human occupants to be displayed in public spaces around Australia. The purpose of the campaign is to illustrate the cramped and inhumane conditions that battery hens endure and to encourage members of the public to take action against this cruelty.
Grants awarded: 2005
Animal Liberation NSW received a $5,000 grant to support the ongoing maintenance of the mobile video education van which had been funded by Voiceless in 2004. This will allow the education program to expand into rural areas throughout NSW, in addition to the ongoing educational efforts in metropolitan Sydney.
Animal Liberation SA were awarded a $15,000 grant to purchase a van for education & outreach purposes. The van will be used to display & distribute the group’s educational material, addressing all issues relating to wildlife & farm animals, visiting supermarkets, festivals and events. Animal Liberation’s life-sized sow, Priscilla, will also be transported in the van.
A $5,000 grant has been awarded to the Australian arm of Compassion in World Farming to provide teacher support material to the DVD ‘Farm Animals & Us in Australia’ (funded by Voiceless in the 2004 grants program). The aim is to increase self-sufficiency of the use of the DVD in the classroom. Three curriculum units, using the DVD as a focus, will be developed as supplemental material.
Edgar's Mission has received a $10,000 grant for the support of Alice the pig. The sanctuary provides homes for unwanted and abused farm animals, particularly pigs. The sanctuary serves to educate people about intensive farming. Alice was a former factory farm pig and more recently starred in the upcoming movie Charlotte’s Web. Voiceless sponsor, Bio-Distributors, will also assist Edgar’s Mission by funding a ‘Kindness Trail’ – an educational, interactive walk through the sanctuary.
Grants awarded: 2004
Animal Liberation ACT has received a $20,000 grant to enable them to deliver a lobbying and awareness campaign to ban the production of battery eggs in the ACT & to encourage ACT consumers to buy free range eggs. This small but passionate organisation run by dedicated volunteers has been at the forefront of the fight to ban battery eggs since 1995 and due mostly to their efforts, in 1997 legislation was passed to ban the production and sale of battery eggs in the ACT. Part of this legislation also restricted the importation of battery eggs, for which agreement was required from all other Australian states and territories. As agreement was not forthcoming, the legislation was never implemented. Animal Liberation ACT now seeks to build on their previous successes, with their Free Range Canberra project. To circumvent a recurrence of the 1997 problem, they seek to ban the production of battery eggs in the ACT but not the importation or sale of battery eggs into the ACT.
Animal Liberation NSW have received a special grant of $15,000 to purchase a mobile education van containing audiovisual displays to make people aware of the cruelty behind factory farming in Australia. Executive Director, Mark Pearson on hearing that they had been awarded this special award, said: "We are absolutely thrilled to receive such a generous donation from "Voiceless. These funds will be used to construct a mobile education vehicle with video monitor and dynamic images, which will travel through many parts of Australia including cities, towns and schools. This way we pro-actively bring the education and information to people where they are. The main subjects will be the intensive farming of animals in factory farms, like piggeries and battery hen facilities. It will simply open the doors of these hidden, dark, cruel places to the Australian community."
A $10,000 special grant has been made to Animals Australia for their 'savebabe.com' billboards, which are part of a public awareness campaign designed to raise the community's understanding of the way most female breeding pigs are kept in intensive and restrictive enclosures for most of their lives - particularly during pregnancy and during birthing and suckling their piglets. The billboards will direct people to a comprehensive website for further information - 'www.savebabe.com'. The campaign will enlist the support of the Australian community to first learn about how pigs suffer in intensive confinement, and to then as consumers make choices which will encourage the pig industry to adopt alternative housing and management systems to improve the welfare of breeding pigs.
Humane Society International has been awarded a $20,000 grant to develop a "humane choice" label in Australia. This award is to be jointly funded by the Berg Family Foundation and the Sherman Foundation.
Compassion in World Farming have received a $20,000 grant which will enable the UK based farm animal welfare organisation to adapt its resource 'Farm Animals & Us'. The adaptation will allow Australian lower secondary school children to enjoy and relate to it, understand the effect that different farming methods have on the welfare of animals, and appreciate how consumer choice ultimately can effect better lives for farm animals.
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