2025 achievements for animals

Some of our top achievements for animals in 2025:

Supporting rescues and sanctuaries

This year, thanks to our donors, supporters and partner organizations, we helped give countless animals a second chance at life.

• Rescued 31 long-tailed macaques in 2024 who continue to recover at Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN)'s sanctuary, with some soon to be released into protected wild areas.  
• Supported Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary with a grant to improve their medical facilities, helping them to provide vital care to rescued wildlife. 
• Helped Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary with a grant to expand their enclosure space, giving rescued primates more room to recover.
• Rescued Mannie the lion from a small, indoor enclosure in a Dutch theme park. He is adjusting to his new spacious savannah at The Lions Foundation sanctuary in South Africa and will soon meet his new pride. 
• Celebrated the success story of Cecilia the giant anteater, rescued after the 2021 Brazilian wildfires. She was recently spotted with a newborn pup clinging to her back, proving the resilience of wildlife! 
• Contributed initial funding to the Whale Sanctuary Project in Nova Scotia and committed to continue supporting this initiative in 2026, helping provide a safe home for whales and dolphins retired from captivity for entertainment.  
• Provided emergency support to companion animals and wildlife following the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, California. 
• Delivered vital aid to animals affected by the Saskatchewan wildfires, ensuring their safety and care.  
• Supported our partner, Asociatia Milioane de Prieteni (AMP), in building a new enclosure for orphaned bear cubs at the Libearty Sanctuary, giving them the space and enrichment they need to thrive. 

Shifting tourism away from wildlife entertainment

This year, we helped drive a global shift toward ethical, wildlife-friendly travel. 

• Helped Goway Travel and more than 60 other travel companies in committing to be wildlife-friendly and not selling or promoting wildlife entertainment. This brings our total of wildlife friendly travel companies worldwide to 225 since we started our global campaign. 
• Supported the opening of Elephant Forest Phitsanoulok in Thailand where elephants roam freely in a guided, observation-only environment, following our elephant-friendly guidelines of no riding, shows or direct contact. 
• Contributed to Mexico’s landmark ban on dolphin and marine mammal shows, offering expert guidance and resources to carry out a pilot assessment and design the transfer protocols for animals still in captivity. 
• Continued to expand our Wildlife Heritage Areas network, promoting destinations that protect wildlife, their habitats and the communities that safeguard them.  

Engaging government and keeping animal welfare on the political agenda  

In 2025, we worked across all levels of government to advance stronger protections for animals and ensure animal welfare stayed firmly on the political agenda.

• Vote for Animals campaign: Over 3,000 supporters sent letters to their Members of Parliament (MPs), generating 20+ media hits and demonstrating to political parties that animal welfare must be a priority. 
  • Co-hosted a national all-party virtual animal welfare debate. The debate included representatives from four federal parties, attracted over 1,000 registrants and featured more than 100 supporter-submitted questions.
    
  • Secured animal welfare commitments from four of the five main parties through survey responses, platform pledges and an all-party debate. Notably, all party representatives at our virtual debate took a position on Marineland, making it a national election issue. The Liberal Party also committed to continuing to support strong laws to reduce the commercial trade in wild animals and announced plans to champion nature conservation internationally, including stopping illegal wildlife trade across Canada’s borders.  

• Engaged numerous MPs, Ministers, Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) and local government officials at key political events, including the Federal Liberal Caucus retreat, the Animal Welfare Caucus, Parliamentary Committee submissions, the launch of Ontario’s roadside zoo bill and the GreenPAC Breakfast on the Hill – achieving several positive outcomes for animals.
• Joined Climate Action Network Canada’s delegation at COP30, helping put factory farming on the global climate policy agenda.

Stopping the spread of factory farming

We continued to hold industrial animal agriculture accountable and push back against its expansion worldwide.

• Exposed JBS corruption, anti-trust activities, tax avoidance and environmental harm, increasing the cost of doing business for industrial animal agriculture.
  
  • Acted against JBS’s proposed expansion into Nigeria, highlighting the risks of factory farming for animals, communities and the environment, while promoting sustainable, humane alternatives.  
  • Participated in the Drop JBS Coalition, a powerful alliance of campaign groups, lawyers and policy makers, to expose the company’s greenwashing and halt its ambitions for growth.  
  • Submitted reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and credit rating agencies, exposing the truths about how their supply chains drive deforestation and habitat loss.  
  • Alerted the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) to the risks of validating JBS’s net-zero claims, which were later removed from their website. 

Ending roadside zoos and advocating for stronger regulations

Thanks to persistent advocacy and supporter action, 2025 saw major progress in shutting down roadside zoos and pushing for stronger provincial regulations to protect animals.

• Celebrated the permanent closure of Marineland after decades of advocacy, offering hope for stronger zoo regulations in Ontario. World Animal Protection was featured heavily in media in Canada and globally, showing the world is watching what happens next with the fate of the remaining animals at Marineland.
• Saw the results of our advocacy efforts with roadside zoo Waddles’N’Wags permanently closing in 2025 following our exposé report Nothing New at the Zoo, complaints we submitted to PAWS and subsequent animal seizures in 2023 and 2024. 
• Met with MPP Silvia Gualtieri (Parliamentary Assistant to the Ontario Solicitor General) to speak about Ontario's roadside zoo problem and the future of the animals at Marineland. We also discussed our research and recommendations for provincial zoo licensing regulations and standards. 
• Visited roadside zoos around Ontario to document the conditions firsthand which could be used to strengthen our discussions with government and policymakers. 

• Supported Ontario Liberal MPPs Lucille Collard and Karen McCrimmon in introducing a new bill in the Legislature to put an end to roadside zoos and wildlife entertainment. 
• Gained momentum in our local campaign bringing together municipalities in Ontario calling for stronger province-wide wildlife protections, now reaching over 49 municipalities. We co-hosted a booth with Zoocheck at the 2025 Rural Ontario Municipal Association Conference to promote our municipal resolution to dozens of policymakers and MPs.  
• Connected with staff in the Office of the Solicitor General, starting conversations about comprehensive zoo licensing regulations in Ontario.