Highlights

Total grants awarded to date: $638,476.

Current grantees: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Mercy for Animals, Humane Long Island, Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, and Faunalytics.

Past grantees: Animal Place, White Coat Waste Project, Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, Factory Farming Awareness Coalition (now New Roots Institute), Compassion Over Killing (now Animal Outlook), Animal Legal Defense Fund, Good Food Institute, Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, HOWS Project, Virginia Beach SPCA, Beagle Freedom Project, Vegan Outreach, Lost Dog & Cat Foundation, and Have a Heart Farm.

2024

The PETA Equine Matters campaign, which this Fund has supported since 2016, continued its work with The Washington Post to expose unregulated race tracks that not only kill horses and jockeys, but are also intertwined with extensive criminal activity -- and to expose the lack of federal law enforcement response even as the number of known "bush tracks" has nearly doubled to 192 in a year and a half. More in the February 15 article The feds’ raid on a ‘bush track’ fizzled, so horses kept racing — and dying.

2023

The PETA Equine Matters team, to which this Fund has contributed since 2016, rescued former US racehorses Any Given Saturday and My Elusive Dream from near-certain slaughter in South Korea. The team persuaded the California Horse Racing Board to approve a new regulation to prohibit its licensees from participating in or even attending unregulated "bush track" events. Separately, after an Equine Matters investigation, Anheuser-Busch committed to cease amputating tails of Clydesdales the company uses to pull Budweiser beer wagons at events.

 

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Exam Room LivePodcast program focusing on plant-based health, which the Fund has regularly sponsored since 2019, logged a total of 18 million downloads, and launched a series of live events in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington DC.

2022

PETA’s Cruelty Investigations Department (CID) — this Fund's top grantee since 2016 — conducted an undercover investigation and worked with Virginia and U.S. legislators and officials to close research breeding facility Envigo and release thousands of surviving dogs for adoption. Media coverage included the Washington Post article Profit, pain and puppies: Inside the rescue of nearly 4,000 beagles.

Virginia Governor Youngkin with PETA SVP Daphna Nachminovitch and Bella

2021

PETA‘s campaign to end cruelty toward race horses — a major grantee of this Fund since 2016 — joined a coalition working to redirect New York State subsidies away from the horse racing industry and toward vital public education and social services. After a PETA-funded survey found 83% public support, New York State legislators introduced a new bill targeting $230 million in annual New York State horse racing subsidies, the highest in the United States.

2020

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (S. 4547/H.R. 1754) was signed into law on December 27, as part of an omnibus government funding and pandemic aid package. An early impetus for this legislation was PETA‘s 2013 investigation into treatment of racehorses including Charlie’s Quest, who we jointly rescued. The bill then advanced all the way through Congress — rare for an animal protection bill. PETA’s multi-pronged campaign to end drugging and other cruel racehorse treatment — which this Fund has long supported — was cited by The Washington Post editorial board among others, as the bill advanced to passage.

PETA's Community Animal Project successfully worked during Virginia's 2020 legislative session to pass SB 272 in the House and Senate, mandating shelter in temperatures of 32° F or lower or 85° F or higher, or during a severe weather warning. The bill, which also increases the minimum tether length from 10 to 15 feet, builds on 2019 SB 1025 which PETA also championed. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed the bill into law on April 9, and it went into effect on July 1, 2020.

In a first-of-its kind lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey and financed by PETA, a harness-racing bettor received $20,000 to settle his claim that he was cheated out of his winnings when a doped horse won a race in New Jersey in 2016. This sets an important precedent for more bettor litigation, putting trainers and owners on notice that there is a price to pay for drugging horses. The bettor has also agreed to donate more than 1/3 of his settlement proceeds to a racehorse adoption program - a double win for racehorses!

2019

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made an historic decision to eliminate all chemical testing on mammals by 2035, and to immediately begin the transition to more modern and effective methods.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have been working toward this outcome for decades, and White Coat Waste Project has also been campaigning for this result in recent years. All three organizations were represented at the news conference where EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the plan.

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USDA Kitten Victory Soft

Thanks to the White Coat Waste Project, a bipartisan coalition of over 50 US Congresspeople, and a nationwide network of animal welfare and taxpayer advocates, the U.S. Department of Agriculture halted kitten experiments that had killed over 3,000 animals since 1982, and agreed to adopt out 14 surviving cats.

PETA’s Campaign to End Racehorse Cruelty successfully advocated for a ban on whips and race-day medications at Stronach Group California racetracks, and an investigation by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, after dozens of horses died in one season at Santa Anita Park.

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Backyard Dogs

PETA's Community Animal Project successfully worked with a coalition of Virginia animal advocates to pass SB 1025 mandating improved shelter and space for outdoor dogs.

2018

Christopher and many other dogs were rescued from outdoor chaining or penning, through the teamwork of PETA’s Community Animal Project, the primary recipient of Greg Fund grants; and the Virginia Beach SPCA, recipient of PETA’s 2017 Gregory J. Reiter Animal Rescue Award.

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After an investigation by PETA’s Campaign to End Racehorse Cruelty--the same investigation that led to rescuing Charlie’s Quest--the New York State Gaming Commission introduced sweeping new anti-doping rules.

 

 

Thanks to White Coat Waste Project Freedom of Information Act work, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration halted nicotine experiments that had caused four squirrel monkeys to die, and then sent the 26 surviving monkeys--including one named Gregory-- to sanctuary.

 

 

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Through collaboration with another private donor, Food for Thought--A Program of Animal Place began offering Event Grants to animal and environmental organizations for piloting all-vegan events. Greg Fund outreach prompted many wildlife and environmental groups to plan 100% plant-based events; the first Event Grant in this category was awarded for an international gathering of young climate journalists.

 

 

The Greg Fund partnered with Maryland-based Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary to arrange the release and transport of hens who had been used in fertility testing, and would otherwise have been killed after the experiments were complete.

 

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PETA’s Campaign to End Racehorse Cruelty introduced a new technology that allows bettors to donate for racehorse aftercare, to prevent these horses being sent to slaughter in Canada or Mexico.

 

The Greg Fund partnered with Animal Place to publish a new Food for Thought wildlife/environmental brochure, and then issued Policy Grants to ten organizations that newly formalized vegan or vegetarian menu policies.

The Greg Fund worked with PETA's Campaign to End Racehorse Cruelty, rescuing racehorse Charlie’s Quest when he was at imminent risk of breaking down on the track, and then providing two months of rehabilitative care prior to Greg's widow Alysoun adopting Charlie in September.

 

The Greg Fund partnered with Food for Thought – A Program of Animal Place to establish a new program arm focused on wildlife and environmental organizations. The partnership produced endorsements from 31 organizations with existing vegan or vegetarian menu policies and guided three new organizations to adopt vegan menu policies.

 

(2/25/24)
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