Want to work somewhere else? That’s OK — and maybe even better!
When thinking about animal advocacy careers, most people typically think about charities. It’s true that animal charities play an essential role in the movement. But animals need allies in many places.
We think alternative roles can be as impactful — or, in some cases, even more impactful — than working in charities. This is for a couple of reasons:
- There are a lot more of these roles available, so it’s a good way to grow the animal advocacy movement beyond the typical animal charities. You can also test your personal fit for different paths, so you can more confidently join animal advocacy organisations in the future and apply those skills immediately.
- Some roles outside of charities can get you very good “career capital” — the skills and connections to succeed and be efficient in any job. This means you put yourself in a good position to be more impactful later: many advocacy organisations would love to have staff members who know how things work in institutions they want to influence, and who have valuable networks to build and maintain relationships.
Curious about where you can make the biggest difference for animals? Check out the linked roles below—these are the ones AAC believes hold a potentially high impact for animals!
Academia
Successful academics can use their career in multiple ways to help animals. Some fields — like biology or veterinary medicine — can allow you to conduct research to answer important questions in animal advocacy. Other fields — like philosophy, politics, communications, and law — allow you to use your platform to advocate for animals.
Working at academic institutions has many advantages, like access to resources and funding. Academics also have more authority and credibility, which increases their chances to influence key decision-makers and public opinion.
Media
Public opinion is largely influenced by the media. And what is (or is not) shown and discussed in the media has a large impact on how decision-makers take positions about certain issues.
Unfortunately, mainstream media outlets don’t put the horrors of factory farming in the headlines, so animal welfare rarely makes it onto social or political agendas. Although animal charities try to overcome this by going directly to the public, their audience is limited and they are typically viewed as biassed.
If you have a successful career in media, you can use your position to provide more coverage of animal welfare issues — like undercover investigations in factory farms, or the benefits of a transition to plant-based food systems.
Healthcare
Factory farming is bad for public health, and healthcare professionals like doctors and dietitians can help inform the public and key stakeholders about these risks.
For example:
- They can inform the public about the evidence of the health risks of diets heavy in animal products, and the benefits of plant-based alternatives.
- Factory farming is also associated with higher risk of epidemics, antibiotic resistance, and food poisoning. Public health advocates can promote cruelty-free alternatives that improve both animal and human welfare.
But it’s important to note that healthcare careers that focus primarily on clinical medicine are unlikely to achieve these outcomes simply through working with individual patients. For large-scale change to happen, advocates will need to find opportunities with more interactions with decision-makers, or combine their clinical work with these opportunities.
Veterinary medicine
Veterinary services of course help individual animals by tending to their wounds and preventing further disease. But we think veterinarians can achieve much more if they pursue career paths that can create impact at scale.
For example:
- Government veterinarians can audit farms and slaughterhouses to maintain minimum animal welfare standards.
- Senior veterinarians can provide expert opinions to inform key decision-makers about possible regulations and reforms that could improve animal welfare.
Unfortunately, many veterinary associations adopt pro-factory farming views due to their financial involvement with the industry. Having opposing viewpoints and pro-animal welfare voices in these professional platforms can be very impactful, especially in the long term.
Environmental organisations
Environmental organisations are natural allies of animal advocacy organisations, as factory farming harms the environment as well as farmed animals. Unfortunately, there’s been limited collaboration between the two fields to date.
But this can change, and there are signs that environmental organisations are getting more involved with animal welfare issues.
If you work in environmental organisations, you could use your position to facilitate such collaborations. Animal advocacy organisations have much to gain from joint efforts, as environmental organisations are often better-known and enjoy more public support than animal welfare organisations.
Government
Government officials, judges, representatives, and their advisors can have an incredible impact. For example, they can contribute to better animal welfare laws, or promote government support of research and development for animal product alternatives. Government rules and regulations have a supreme position over institutions and individuals, and thus can impact millions of animals. Governmental organisations also have a crucial role in the actual implementation of animal welfare protections by conducting audits and ensuring compliance.
Working within the government may be more effective as a path to impact, as it’s quite challenging to influence government agencies from the outside. Those who work within the government can also build bridges between the government and advocacy organisations.
Corporations
Many corporations have an enormous number of animals in their supply chain — think about restaurants and grocery store chains. If animal advocates can influence these corporations’ welfare standards, they could have a huge impact on animals’ wellbeing.
Many charities try to do this through constructive dialogue or pressure campaigns. These efforts have a strong track record of success, but not every outreach or campaign will be effective. In many cases, corporations remain indifferent or resistant to change.
Another approach is to work within the system. Executives and managers in such companies have great power to make significant changes — like refusing to source eggs from caged chickens, or adding more plant-based options to their menus. Working within these companies may be more impactful than trying to influence them from the outside.
Philanthropic Foundations and Investment Funds
These institutions hold monetary resources that can potentially be used for animal welfare. Philanthropic and investment interest for animal welfare and alternatives to animal products is currently less than ideal.
By getting to an influencing or managing position in these institutions, you can channel much needed funds to effective organisations and promising companies that compete with animal products. The impact of these contributions might be much bigger than directly working in a non-profit or a vegan company, given that some major grants or investments can allow these organisations to scale up significantly and hire many individuals to help them accomplish their goals.
Niche tech fields
Technology has great potential to transform the food industry, and is possibly more promising than moral advocacy. The most obvious technical field for animal advocates is developing and promoting alternatives to animal products.
Other areas that seem promising for future study include:
- Developing effective stunning technology and equipment that reduces suffering during slaughter.
- Using gene editing to create animal breeds that have better health and welfare outcomes.
- Figuring out ways to leverage artificial intelligence for the good of animals.
Companies that aim to replace animal products or improve animal welfare
There are also impactful career opportunities in for-profit companies. These may have better salaries or professional development opportunities, and still help animals just as much as nonprofit organisations.
Companies working on animal product alternatives. If successful, these companies’ products will outcompete animal products with alternatives that are high quality, affordable, and convenient. There are hundreds of these companies worldwide offering thousands of job opportunities each year — everything from marketing, sales, supply chain management, research and development, electricians, drivers, cooks, and many more. You can find current job opportunities on the Tälist job board.
Companies working to help animals in other ways. For example:
- Respeggt Group works to end the needless killing of male chicks in the egg industry by installing in-ovo sexing technology in hatcheries to identify male chicks before they hatch.
- ACE Aquatec works to accelerate the adoption of stunning systems in the aquaculture industry by developing equipment that improves animal welfare while meeting producers’ interests.
Earning and giving more
Finally, you can donate to animal charities. You might already have donated to some animal charities. You can have much more impact if you scale it up by using your career to earn more and donate more.
In almost every career path, there are opportunities to earn more as you progress. Although these careers may seem irrelevant for animal welfare, you can make a huge difference if you channel these resources into the movement. Your donations may mean that high-impact organisations can sustain and expand their efforts. By helping the people who help animals, you help animals.
Imagine that you pursue a career in engineering or finance. By actively seeking to optimise your income — without harming others, of course — you might be able to donate enough to fund two or three (or even more) annual salaries for people to work directly on animal advocacy.
This approach is also flexible. You can balance things like your location, your family commitments, and your work preferences to pursue a career that works for you. You can then donate what you can, without making a huge shift in your career or your life.
You can read more about this approach in our detailed career path profile about earning to give for animals.
In Your Current Career
Pledge a portion of your income to animal charities and help change the world today.
Concerns and replies
Some common concerns about pursuing career paths outside of advocacy organisations include:
- Most of these career paths involve tasks and priorities that do not relate to animal welfare, so your impact on animals may be limited.
- It may be challenging to use your role for the good of animals. For example, journalists may have a hard time convincing their editors to feature animal-welfare-related stories, as they will have other priorities and perspectives about what news to cover and how.
- These career paths may require you to make a lot of compromise from your personal beliefs. For example, government officials who negotiate better animal welfare standards often have to settle on modest reforms, given levels of public support and the pressure from the industry and other levels of the government.
- Some of these career options may even involve participating in animal suffering: working with and within the industry inevitably requires cooperation with the industry in order to achieve relevant goals. This may allow you to improve conditions for animals, yet still involve animal abuse. For example, organisations that develop and supply electrical stunners are still contributing to harming animals (even if they’re improving animal welfare).
- Some of these career paths may get “too comfortable” over time and lead to complacency. This is a particular risk for earning to give back to the movement: as people get richer, they may find they have more in common with powerful people than oppressed animals, and focus more and more on their own interests.
Here are our responses to these concerns:
- First and foremost, these are career options. Of course, there are other opportunities (especially in charities), and everyone has the right to choose. However, job opportunities in animal charities are not endless: most of them are very competitive, and not everyone — especially those who are just beginning their careers — can easily get in.
- Many advocates may have legitimate reasons for choosing to work outside of a charity due to their financial situation, relevant skills, or other life goals. These adjacent career options may be a suitable compromise for many.
- We are also not arguing that everyone should work in these adjacent fields or that advocacy charities should be abandoned. We simply claim that advocacy charities and the advocacy movement in general can benefit from these adjacent fields too, and they can work together to achieve meaningful change for animals.
- It’s likely to be very difficult to achieve real progress through charity work and direct advocacy alone. As all animal advocates realise, there are many challenges ahead before animal liberation. In many cases, charities are less powerful than the institutions and prejudices they are struggling against, and they need help from other sources.
- Organisations outside of animal charities can reach people or fix bottlenecks that charities cannot. Although working at these organisations comes with its own challenges, the upsides may outweigh them in many instances.
Finally, and most importantly, all career considerations depend heavily on personal fit. We do not argue that these options are best for every single animal advocate, and that everyone should agree with these routes to impact. We believe that the most impactful roles are a unique combination of:
- The skills you have (or could get).
- Your personal fit, career aspirations, and risk appetite.
- The needs of our movement.
The paths above may be good options for some people who want to help animals, and they’re often overlooked — so we encourage people who want to use their careers to help animals to seriously consider these options too.
If you are unsure about opportunities inside and outside the movement, you may want to apply to have a free 1:1 call with one of our advisors.
Career Advising
Feeling lost in your career transition? We’re here to help.
