OUR VISION
Voiceless envisions a just, equitable world where animals can flourish.
OVER 20 YEARS OF ANIMAL PROTECTION
For over twenty years, Voiceless has been at the forefront of creating a new social justice movement – animal protection. We have advanced legal protections for animals, capacity-built organisations and advocates, created impactful public campaigns, animal law resources and youth education programmes, and exposed cruel industries through in-depth reports. There’s still so much more to do. Read more about our history here. Our Donor Impact Reports are also a wealth of information on Vocieless’s 20+ years of work. Please read our latest 2025 Donor Impact Report to learn more about our work.
Hot Topics
Animals are sentient beings with their own rich, complex emotional and social lives. Through science-based research, law and education, Voiceless explores the key issues in animal protection.
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Live Export
Every year, around three million live animals are exported from Australia for slaughter overseas.
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Kangaroos
The commercial killing of kangaroos is a multi-million dollar meat and skin industry and the largest slaughter of land-based animals in the world.
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Broiler Chickens
Each year 600 million chickens are produced for meat in Australia and most are factory farmed, with up to 60,000 broiler chickens living in a single shed.
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Dairy Cows
Each year around 450,000 calves, considered ‘wastage’, are taken from their mothers and either killed on-farm or sent for commercial slaughter within just five days of being born.
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Battery Hens
Over 10 million battery hens are confined to small cages in Australia, unable to perform even their most natural behaviours.
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More Hot Topics
See here for more in-depth information and factsheets on other topics.
Voiceless grants program
The Voiceless Grant’s Program supports impactful initiatives in line with our vision to create a just, equitable world where animals can flourish.
"Counting Kangaroos - Fact or Fiction?"
Together with Kangaroos Alive and Voiceless Directors Dr Dror Ben-Ami and Professor Daniel Ramp, a new report and independent assessment has been released identifying critical gaps in reliability, transparency, and sustainability across state-managed kangaroo management plans.
The Life of the Dairy Cow Republished
Voiceless is proud to announce the update and republication of our groundbreaking 2015 report and damning exposé of the Australian dairy industry, 'The Life of the Dairy Cow'. This special edition, published by the Animal Studies Journal, honours our late friend and colleague Dr Deidre Wicks, whose passion for dairy cow welfare inspired the original work.
2025 Donor Impact Report
Our 2025 Donor Impact Report reflects the remarkable progress being made by the changemakers we support — from pioneering alternatives to animal exploitation to advancing legal and policy reform that protect the rights of animals. Please read this year’s Impact Report and see the powerful results of our shared purpose – the protection of animals.
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VOICELESS ANIMAL CRUELTY INDEX
An interactive and innovative tool that compares the animal welfare performance of some of the largest livestock producers in the world. Find out how your country compares on the newly updated Voiceless Animal Cruelty Index (VACI).
LEARN MORE
Animal Law Services List
There are a range of animal law organisations and law firms offering animal law services across Australia. In order to assist the Voiceless community and beyond, we’ve compiled this list to make your search for an animal law organisation or law firm as quick, easy and accessible as possible.
These services can include:
- Providing legal advice on issues of animal law;
- submitting law reform submissions;
- running animal law events;
- educating the community on animal law, and;
- providing space for burgeoning animal lawyers to grow through internships and PLT placements.
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💫 Congratulations to our new Voiceless Grant Recipient @samyanpress 👏
Voiceless is proud to support Sam Yan Press in Thailand, which translates and publishes seminal works on animal rights, helping to bridge the gap between ethical philosophy and animal advocacy in a culturally relevant way.
By translating key texts, including Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility by renowned philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum and The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights, Sam Yan Press is creating new pathways for reflection, dialogue and empathy across faith, academia, and activism for all beings. 🌱
To learn more about Sam Yan Press and our other inspiring grantees, click on our bio 👆
#VoicelessGrants #AnimalRights #Buddhism #Compassion #SamYanPress
📣 Voiceless Launches Animal Advocacy Scholarships for the 2026 Animal Rights Forum!
We’re thrilled to support passionate young and early-career advocates based in Australia in attending the Animal Rights Forum 2026, taking place in Sydney on 21–22 February 2026.
These scholarships will cover registration, and where applicable, interstate travel and accommodation for outstanding applicants ready to create a more compassionate world for animals.
Through this initiative, Voiceless aims to amplify and empower the next generation of changemakers stepping into Australia’s animal protection movement.
🗓️ Applications are now open and close on Friday, 5 December.
💻 Click our bio link to read the criteria and to apply.
✨ Dedicated to our beloved late Patron, Dr Jane Goodall DBE (1934–2025).
🌏 Grant Spotlight: @sentient.world
We’re proud to highlight our newest Voiceless Grant Recipient, Sentient, whose Global Animal Activists Community (GAAC+) program is creating a powerful network of trained investigators uncovering cruelty and driving systemic reform for animals across India and Asia. 💪
Since receiving Voiceless support, Sentient has:
🎓 Trained dozens of new investigators
🌐 Launched a 12-week Masterclass with We Animals’ Jo-Anne McArthur
🤝 Co-hosted the Asia Investigations Symposium with Reporters for Animals International — connecting 40+ investigators across 10+ countries!
Sentient also unveiled its India Investigative Report and forthcoming 2026–2030 Strategy at the AVA India Summit, charting a bold path to strengthen investigative capacity, community support, and policy influence across the Global South.
✨ Together, we’re empowering a new generation of animal advocates. Click our bio link to learn more about Sentient`s work and our other extraordinary grantees ✨
#VoicelessGrants #Sentient #AnimalJustice #AnimalAdvocacy #SystemicChange #Investigations #ForTheAnimals #GlobalSouth #Voiceless
💔 Last week, we lost one of the world’s greatest voices for animals, people, and the planet — Dr Jane Goodall, a beloved Voiceless Patron and lifelong inspiration to our Co-founder and Managing Director, Ondine Sherman, and to all of us at Voiceless.
In her new blog, Ondine reflects on Jane’s compassion, determination, and unwavering hope for a kinder world:
“Thank you, Jane, for reminding me, and so many others, to never give up. Even when the world looks dire, and humans appear uncaring and uncompassionate… Our work, our mission, is to continue.”
Ondine remembers Jane as “a unique voice: a global advocate for nature, wildlife, and all animals. No hierarchy, no categorisation, no labels.”
Read Ondine’s heartfelt tribute to Dr Jane Goodall — a pioneer who showed us that “hope is not passive — it’s about action.”
Jane’s life reminds us that every act of kindness matters — and that hope, when turned into action, can change the world.
👉 Click our bio link to read the full blog 💚.
🌏 Meet our latest Voiceless grant recipient @ajustworld, strengthening the collective movement for food system transformation in India.
Bringing together organisations, advocates, and experts from animal protection, environmental and human health backgrounds, @ajustworld applies systems thinking to the interwoven crises of animal agriculture, environmental destruction, and social injustice.
Through research, policy engagement, and community mobilisation, they advance plant-based solutions for a healthier, more equitable world.
With support from Voiceless, their youth education project, Food and You 2.0 has achieved:
🥗 105,000+ plant-based meals served across 15 schools
📚 11,000+ students engaged with plant-based outreach
🤝 A grassroots network of 85+ partners in their Network for Animals, People, and Planet.
We are proud to support their leadership in building a just future for animals, people, and the planet 👏.
👉 Click on our bio link to visit our 2025 Grant Recipients webpage to meet more of our solutions-focused changemakers for animals.
#Voiceless #AnimalJustice #SystemsChange #India #FoodSystemReform
🌟The Tasmanian Government’s recent decision to end all state funding of greyhound racing by 2029 represents a landmark shift in animal policy.
This outcome is a testament to the dedicated greyhound advocates in Tasmania, who worked tirelessly for years to raise public awareness and push for reform. Voiceless is humbled to have played a part in supporting their efforts through a 2023 grant that funded polling research revealing strong public opposition to continued subsidies for greyhound racing.
Deborah Fleming OAM, grant recipient, notes that Australia remains the “global epicentre of greyhound racing with by far the majority of the world’s remaining tracks."
We celebrate this win, the tireless efforts of local, Tasmanian advocates, and most importantly, the countless greyhounds who will be spared from suffering. 👏🐾💙
To learn more about our Grant Impact Stories, click on our bio link.
#Voiceless #GreyhoundRacing #AnimalJustice #Tasmania
🐄 The Life of the Dairy Cow: Report Republished 🐄
We’re proud to share that our landmark report, The Life of the Dairy Cow, has been updated and republished in a special edition of the Animal Studies Journal. Originally released by Voiceless in 2015, this damning exposé of the Australian dairy industry continues to be a vital tool for advocates and policymakers.
This edition is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend and colleague Dr Deidre Wicks, whose unwavering passion for dairy cow welfare inspired the original report. 💛
A huge thank you to:
🔹 Dr Melissa Boyde, Editor of the Animal Studies Journal
🔹 Voiceless Director & Advisor Sarah Margo
🔹 Voiceless Advisor Prof. Clive Phillips
…for their incredible work updating the content and ensuring its relevance for today’s movement.
With its republication, this report will continue to inform strategies for meaningful reform and support a just transition away from Australia’s incumbent dairy system. 🐄
📖 Click on our bio link to read the report.
#AnimalJustice #Voiceless #DairyIndustry #AnimalAdvocacy #DairyCows #JustTransition #DairyReform #AnimalProtection
📣 Big news for animal rights education!
Voiceless is proud to support the International Centre for Animal Rights and Ethics (ICARE) with funding for their groundbreaking online course: Contemporary Issues in Animal Rights Law (CIARL).
This one-of-a-kind course blends academic theory with practical advocacy to empower animal changemakers around the world 🌍💡
We’re especially excited that our support will fund scholarships for Global South participants and help deliver the next course later in 2025 🙌
📚 Click on our bio link to learn more about our Voiceless Grant recipients and to join the waitlist for the 2nd CIARL course for later this year (date TBC and with limited enrollments).
@icare_animalrights
#AnimalRights #Voiceless #ICARE #AnimalLaw
✨ You believe in a kinder future for animals. Will you take the next step?
This EOFY, a donation to Voiceless could spark lasting change for animals in Australia and in underrepresented parts of the world.
From strategic legal reforms to compassionate education, plant-based food innovation, and grassroots advocacy, our grant projects are reshaping industries, policies, and hearts and minds.
🌱 100% of your donation goes directly to grant projects — not a cent to overheads.
📣 Be part of a community that’s strategic, effective, and entirely donor-powered.
🧡 Donate today and help animals flourish.
🔗 Click the link in our bio to read our 2025 Donor Impact Report and visit our Donate page to donate before June 30.
Learn more about
The Voiceless Blog
Opinions, news and analysis covering key topics in animal protection, animal law, education and cruelty-free living.
High School Resources
Educate and inspire your classroom to think critically about animal protection.
Suggested Reading
Review our list of books, articles, texts and videos for your core animal protection materials.