A new animal rights conference, and a blacklist

The #MeToo moment rocked the animal advocacy movement. High-profile leaders were accused of sexual harassment. Women banded together. Heads rolled.

The reckoning has had an impact. Today, the most important groups advocating for animals–the Humane Society of the US, Mercy for Animals, The Humane League, Animal Outlook and PETA–are led by women. Men have been put on notice that bad behavior will no longer be tolerated; women are more likely to assert their rights.

Not incidentally, the nonprofit FARM Animal Rights Movement no longer runs the movement’s annual conference, which was last held in 2019. Its founder and president, Alex Hershaft, was credibly accused of creating a hostile workplace.

FARM’s decline created a vacuum that is now being filled. A small group of activists sponsored by ProVeg International and led by Julia Reinelt (formerly Aumueller), who worked at ProVeg International, and Michael Webermann, who worked at ProVeg and FARM, is planning a new conference, called the Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit.

They have lined up such speakers as Peter Singer, the philosopher whose book Animal Liberation helped launch the animal rights movement; Leah Garces, president of Mercy for Animals; and Bruce Friedrich, the founder and CEO of the fast-growing Good Food Institute. The event…