2025 Top 10 for Animals and People
For a decade, my Gregory J. Reiter Memorial Fund has supported work to build a kinder and healthier world for animals and people.
Continuing an annual year-end tradition, I’m proud to share the 2025 top 10 highlights of work the Fund has supported — providing plant-based nutrition assistance for humans, protecting animal victims of military conflict and institutional abuse, conducting brave investigative work, propelling animal-free science into the mainstream, and more.
1 – Podcasting plant-based health to the world
Since 2017, The Exam Room Podcast and Exam Room Live (YouTube / Facebook) have recorded 700 episodes with nutrition experts at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) — reaching audiences in 150+ countries with a range of plant-based health topics, and debunking disinformation from animal agriculture industries. The Greg Fund was a sponsor for the 7th consecutive year in 2025; full list of sponsored episodes at Vegan for Health.
2 – Spreading compassion with vegan food giveaways
The multi-faceted vegan campaign of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) includes partnering with local organizations throughout the United States and Canada to distribute free hearty plant-based roasts for the holidays. PETA advocates for vegan living to save animals and promote human health and a cleaner global environment, based on the principle that animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.
3 – Debunking the “humane farm” myth
PETA Cruelty Investigations goes undercover to expose animal abuse in many industries around the world. Its recent work has revealed cruelty and unsanitary conditions at “humane” facilities including a Pennsylvania turkey farm, a Connecticut dairy, a Virginia chicken farm, and an Oregon goat dairy. These investigations have led to numerous cruelty-to-animals convictions, while the farms have removed false “humane” claims from their advertising, and lost the business of major supermarket chains.
4 – Building momentum for animal-free research
PETA Research Modernization works worldwide to prevent animal suffering in experiments and promote modern scientific methods that deliver better outcomes for humans. Its decades of work played a key role in many 2025 breakthroughs — including, in the U.S., a National Institutes of Health (NIH) decision to stop funding animal-only studies, and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decision to phase out experiments on monkeys.
5 – Saving innocent victims of war
Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, PETA’s Global Compassion Fund and PETA Deutschland have worked with Animal Rescue Kharkiv (ARK) to provide veterinary care for sick or injured animals, move nearly 30,000 animals abroad or to the safest locations within Ukraine, and deliver millions of pounds of supplies. ARK cares for small animals at its Kharkiv Veterinary Clinic and Little Prince Cat Sanctuary, and shelters large animals at its rural Peace Sanctuary.
6 – Saving racehorses from slaughter
PETA presented its 2025 10th annual Gregory J. Reiter Animal Rescue Award to Professor Ranyoung Kim of Jeju Vegan, for her commitment to helping horses and other animals in South Korea. Professor Kim worked with PETA to expose the tragic fate of numerous U.S. racehorses exported to South Korea – and to rescue Thoroughbred former racehorses My Elusive Dream and Golden Minister from slaughter.
7 – Investigating factory farms
Sentient Media investigates factory farming — long a blind spot in mainstream media — and explains the industry’s effect on climate, animals, workers, water quality, public health, and rural communities. Often cited or republished by The Guardian, The Washington Post’s Climate Coach newsletter, and other news outlets, Sentient’s top 2025 stories included “Hundreds of Iowa Meatpacking Employee Visas Revoked” and “Where Are the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and What’s RFK’s Beef With Beans?”
8 – Expanding access to plant-based food
A Well-Fed World provides plant-based hunger relief through feeding and farming programs in 100 countries, while raising awareness of how plant-based diets benefit people, animals, and our global environment. In 2025, it provided critical support for U.S. plant-based meal shares and community pantries, to serve residents experiencing unprecedented economic hardship.
9 – Delivering free nutrition education
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has expanded its free nutrition education resources to better serve low-income communities with high rates of chronic disease. These resources include the Food for Life Health Equity Grant Program, and free registered dietitian guides for eating plant-based on a budget and filling food banks with healthy and compassionate products.
10 – Helping advocates help animals
Faunalytics conducts research to help advocates help animals. In 2025, the organization began work on a new Investigations Index — a database to preserve and analyze the history of animal protection investigations at factory farms, slaughterhouses, research labs, and more; designed to help advocates and funders strategize future investigative work.