Animal Welfare Trust awarded grants totaling $265,400 in 2011 which was up 14% from $231,900 in 2010, broken down as follows:

• $148,400 in grants from our general grant program to 15 organizations.
• $100,000 in our direct project program to HEART (Humane Education Advocates Reaching Teachers) and the New York Coalition for Healthy School Food.
• $17,000 in grants to 5 student internship projects which are discussed in the student internship section of the web site.

While a number of notable events happened in the animal welfare arena in 2011, the one I want to comment on in this letter is the surprise agreement announced last July between HSUS and the United Egg Producers whereby HSUS agreed to give up state-by-state campaigns to ban battery cages and both organizations agreed to support a federal legislative proposal for improved caged conditions for egg-laying hens. It didn't take long for critics from both sides, industry and the animal rights movement, to voice their disappointment, and in some cases outrage, for this "compromise." To be sure, the major focus of animal organizations, including HSUS, had been the elimination of battery cages so this agreement represented a significant change in strategy.

While I respect the contrary views of animal organizations that are against this agreement, I believe it represents a major victory for the farm animal movement. In the end it is all about reducing animal suffering rather than trying to reach for goals that may be unattainable for the foreseeable future.

The alternative to battery cages was no panacea at all and a very long way from anything like free range. The reality is whether raised in battery cages or in sheds, under our mega industrialized farming system, both are intensive confinement systems that are cruel and unnatural. I believe a good case can be made that birds raised in the larger battery cage system with enrichment features are preferable to a bifurcated system that would have some birds living in still abusive indoor sheds while others continued to suffer in deplorable current size cages.

There is another aspect of this agreement that has not yet played out. The United Egg Producers came to the point of having to acknowledge that years of animal activists work exposing the cruelty inherent in their production system was having a major impact on public opinion and some of the largest food production and retail companies. This agreement has undoubtedly reverberated through the food production industry. The pork industry, for example, cannot sit back and pretend it is business as usual in supporting what arguably may be the cruelest of confinement practices in the use of sow crates.

Animal Welfare Trust has now been in business for 10 years. Over the past decade there has been some major progress with respect to factory farming reform. If the current trend line extends out another 10 years, the most intensive confinement systems may be headed for replacement by better conditions. But we are painfully aware these reforms only represent incremental reduction in farm animal suffering. The system itself is cruel and inhumane and no one should feel like the real job is done until we achieve a largely vegetarian society.

Once again, I want to thank the dedicated board of AWT both for their service to the organization as well as for all they do to advance the standing of animals.