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Friends of Animals Impact Report 2025

Friends of Animals is a US-based international animal rights organisation founded in 1957, running the nation's largest lower-cost spay/neuter programme, the Primarily Primates sanctuary in Texas (300+ residents), a wildlife law programme pursuing landmark federal lawsuits, and community education and advocacy campaigns. In 2025 key achievements include cancellation of a BLM wild horse roundup following an FoA lawsuit, rescuing eight new primates to Primarily Primates, distributing over $35,000 in free spay/neuter certificates to 400 households, removing 15,000+ pounds of trash from a Denver park in a single event, and inspiring comparable horseshoe crab legislation in three additional US states based on FoA's Connecticut model.

Report snapshot
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About

Spay/Neuter programme (nation's largest lower-cost programme, 4 certificate giveaways in 2025); Primarily Primates sanctuary (78 acres, Texas — chimpanzees, spider monkeys, lemurs, macaques, Wildlife Confiscations Network partner); Wildlife Lawsuits (silverspot butterflies, barred owls, cetaceans, wild horses); Legislative Advocacy (horseshoe crab protections in Connecticut modelled by NY, MA, DE; SGAR rodenticide bans; hunting derby opposition); Colorado Cleanup Crew (trash removals at Denver parks and waterways); Education Campaigns (rodenticide 'Think Outside the Bait Box'; black bear coexistence; Colorado wild horse billboard on Highway 36); Anti-hunting derby campaigns Custom geography from upload: USA (headquartered in Darien, Connecticut) with international reach

Key Metrics

Key Metric 1 Nearly 400 households received free spay/neuter certificates worth over $35,000 across Maine, North Carolina and New York; 15,000+ pounds of trash removed from Denver parks and waterways in single July event
Key Metric 2 4 chimpanzees, 3 spider monkeys and 1 lemur rescued to Primarily Primates sanctuary in 2025; 300+ animals in residence at 78-acre Texas sanctuary; 7,251 gallons of debris removed from Colorado waterways
Key Metric 3 Lawsuits filed against US Fish & Wildlife Service over silverspot butterflies, barred owls and cetaceans; BLM cancelled planned roundup of nearly 2,000 Wyoming wild horses following FoA lawsuit

Key Outcomes

  • Following FoA's Connecticut horseshoe crab ban, New York, Massachusetts and Delaware are pursuing equivalent legislation — demonstrating national policy ripple effect
  • FoA selected to join Wildlife Confiscations Network — first-of-its-kind nationwide programme coordinating care for law enforcement-confiscated wildlife; rodent birth control pilot launched in Fairfield CT with Wisdom Good Works (56% population reduction within 5 months in comparable Boston pilot)
  • 59,622 wild horses now in captivity vs 53,797 roaming free on federal public lands; 1,516 wild horses remain in Colorado on 365,988 acres — FoA billboard campaign highlights meat industry's grip on public lands

Geography

Other

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
5,999 active volunteers contributed 776,242 hours in 2025/26
Key Metric 2
137 winter maintenance projects across 45 canals; 109 lock gates replaced
Key Metric 3
101,640 children participated in Explorers/STEM outdoor learning, including 67,896 water-safety participants
Over 80% of the network kept fully open despite drought.
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
The Eco-Schools programme reached over 1.4 million pupils, with 2,162 schools awarded the Eco-Schools Green Flag in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
326,000 volunteers pledged to the Great British Spring Clean, picking up 425,626 bags of rubbish, supported by 288 local authorities and parish councils
Key Metric 3
2,227 Green Flag Awards given to parks and green spaces in the UK; 151 beaches given a Blue Flag and/or Seaside Award
98.3% of educators felt the Eco-Schools programme significantly supports young people's development of 'green skills'
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
First known breeding success of spoonbills in the Norfolk Broads in around 400 years, recorded at Hickling Broads and Marshes
Key Metric 2
Over 60 nature reserves managed across Norfolk, with land owned or managed for wildlife exceeding 5,000 hectares
Key Metric 3
1,500 volunteers helped protect wildlife across the county during the year
New urban nature reserve co-designed with the local community, expanding accessible green space in Norfolk
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
61,819 native oysters deployed across UK restoration projects in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
15,064 people participated in the Beachwatch beach clean programme, submitting 1,256 litter surveys — the highest in the programme's 31-year history
Key Metric 3
17,613 young people engaged through in-person or online youth programme sessions
£11.5 billion Ofwat investment package secured for storm overflow cuts in England and Wales following sustained MCS advocacy