Humane League

CEO Dan Shannon formerly worked for the controversial animal liberation group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). ²

Background

The Humane League is focused on ending the abuse of animals that are raised for food. ¹ It claims that large-scale animal agriculture “causes deforestation, pollution, and biodiversity loss,” and a broken food system. ³ It also claims that the United States government “props up industrial animal agriculture” through subsidies that support practices that cause pollution, climate change, and animal cruelty. ⁴

The Humane League was founded in 2005 by Nick Cooney, who organized protests against the serving of foie gras by local restaurants in Philadelphia. Then the group partnered with other activists to expand these protests across the northeastern United States, obtaining commitments from restaurants to use cage-free eggs. This work has spread to companies across the food industry and broadened to focus on ending large-scale animal agriculture in general. ⁵

The Humane League organizes campaigns, does research, and produces reports such as the 2024 Cage-Free Fulfillment Report which documented the progress of businesses’ commitments on cage-free egg sourcing. ⁶

Work Areas

Open Wing Alliance

The Open Wing Alliance was established by the Humane League in 2016 to expand its drive to end the abuse of chickens globally. As of 2025, it was made up of over 90 member organizations. At that time, it was working toward cage-free policies, with plans to later pivot to focusing on campaigns that improve the lives of broiler chickens raised for meat. It does this through research, advocacy, and grantmaking. ⁷ As a result, over 170 companies have made cage-free commitments. ⁸

In 2017, the Open Wing Alliance granted $84,000 to four organizations. These grants have increased steadily. In 2025, it awarded over $2 million in grants to 36 organizations. ⁹

Open Wing Alliance member organizations include Animal Equality, Animal Justice, and Mercy For Animals in the United States as well as animal welfare groups in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Oceania. ¹⁰

Animal Policy Alliance

The Animal Policy Alliance was launched by the Humane League in 2024 to end the abuse of animals raised for food through legislative change. It had grown to 24 organizations as of 2025 involved in an alliance in the United States to advocate for policy change at the local, state, and federal levels, enabling legislative change in several areas. The state of Washington passed a bill banning octopus farming. New Jersey passed a ban on gestation and veal crates. It helped block bills that would expand animal agriculture in Missouri, and it was instrumental in persuading the United States Department of Agriculture to update its child nutritional meal patterns to incorporate vegetarian and vegan options. ^{11  12}

Member organizations as of 2025 included the Animal Activism Collective in New York, APEX Advocacy in Georgia which “aims to increase the number of BIPOC individuals who participate in animal activism,” Compassionate Action for Animals in Minnesota, Social Compassion in Legislation in California, and the Vegan Activist Alliance in New York and New Jersey. ¹³

Campaigns

According to the Humane League, 2025 is the deadline that hundreds of companies in the United States committed to transition to cage-free eggs. It produced its annual “Eggspose” report in 2025 to evaluate progress and report on organizations that had not yet done so. ¹⁴

In October 2024, the Humane League staged protests at local Hardee’s restaurants and the headquarters of its parent company, CKE, in Franklin, Tennessee. CKE had pledged to transition to cage-free eggs by 2025 but had not provided information on its progress. ¹⁵

In July 2025, the Humane League challenged Subway on its earlier promise to use only cage-free eggs in North America by 2025. Subway had not responded so the Humane League published a grisly ad in the Connecticut Post. ¹⁶

Funding

The Humane League is funded by individual donations, grants from a few foundations, and investment income. In 2024, its donations and revenue totaled over $25 million. Its expenses totaled almost $20 million. Expense categories included education and mobilization, global programs, Open Wing Alliance and Animal Policy Alliance grants, and public policy and corporate engagement. ¹⁷

Foundation donors to the Humane League include the Sjouwerman Foundation, the Foundation to Decrease World Suck, the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Rudolf Steiner Foundation, the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the National Philanthropic Trust, and the Tides Foundation. ¹⁸

Leadership

Humane League founder Nick Cooney worked as the founding executive director until 2011. In 2015, he co-founded the Good Food Institute, a left-of-center think tank focused on vegan and vegetarian and other non-meat-based proteins. In 2018, he founded and as of 2025 continued to work as board chair of the Lever Foundation which focuses on sustainable food supply chains in Asia. He also founded and as of 2025 was the managing partner of Lever VC, which is a venture capital fund that invests in sustainable food and agriculture technologies. ^{19  20}

Dan Shannon joined the Humane League as CEO in May 2025. Shannon graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in English and creative writing. He worked for the animal liberation group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for over 10 years. He then joined left-wing social impact consultancy Purpose and had senior positions leading projects for clients such as the Gates Foundation, the ACLU, the Oak Foundation, and Feeding America. In 2021, he joined social justice philanthropy Tides as chief partnerships officer before becoming the Humane League CEO in 2025. Shannon also co-founded a vegan food and lifestyle blog called “Meet the Shannons.” ^{2  21}

As of 2025, Alicia Rodriguez was serving as the Humane League’s board chair. Rodriguez graduated from Harvard University Law School and was working as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School at the time. In 2018, she founded the Land and Sea Institute, a food and climate research organization “dedicated to decreasing global food insecurity, reducing meat consumption, and mitigating climate change.” She was also a board member of animal welfare group Legal Impact for Chickens as of 2025. ²²