As 2024 draws to a close, Convergence Animaux Politique (CAP) reflects on a year of resilience and impactful advocacy in the face of political instability. From historic legislative victories to recent strategic initiatives, we have made significant strides in advancing animal topics in the French political landscape. However, as we turn our focus to 2025, we also face the critical challenge of securing the funding necessary to drive further change. This article highlights our key achievements in 2024, outlines our strategic opportunities for 2025, and reveals how your support can help us continue to push for meaningful progress for animals.

Filling a critical gap in the French animal movement

Convergence Animaux Politique (CAP) is a non-profit charity founded in 2017 to fill a critical gap in the French animal movement by coordinating and empowering effective lobbying for animal welfare. By strategically coordinating and supporting the work of our 23 partner NGOs, we extend the reach and impact of their expertise, empowering animal welfare policies with a united and compelling voice.

Before CAP, lobbying efforts in France were fragmented, with only a few organizations reaching out to policymakers in an uncoordinated manner, leading to unclear demands for decision-makers. The absence of a consistent strategy meant NGOs were largely reactive, lacking the cohesive approach needed to set the political agenda. Additionally, there was no central voice for animal welfare that policymakers could easily identify, leaving sympathetic politicians disconnected and without opportunities for collaboration.

Designed to address these needs within France’s animal welfare movement, CAP offers an innovative platform that promotes collaboration, reinforces advocacy efforts, and drives legal protections and policy reforms. Our main areas of focus concern farmed animals welfare, diet change towards plant-based nutrition, and wildlife. We also work to reduce animal testing, end acts of cruelty (such as bullfighting), and improve protections for companion animals and animals living in captivity. Animal protection governance and education are also part of our scope of intervention.

Why Focus on France? France is one of Europe’s largest animal product producers, holding significant influence both domestically and within the EU. France’s role as a frequent barrier to EU-wide animal welfare reforms makes it essential to target policy advancements here, as positive shifts in France can create a ripple effect across Europe.

Driving Impact: Key Milestones in CAP’s Advocacy for Political Change

Since the creation of CAP, we have held 370 meetings with members of parliament and government ministers, supported 45 legislative proposals, facilitated the submission of 138 questions to the government, and introduced 447 amendments. We have also organized 16 events to bring together NGOs and political decision-makers, as well as 15 collective initiatives (open letters, opinion pieces, and mobilization campaigns) to mobilize public opinion.

During the first five-year term (2017-2022) which marked the launch phase of our organization, our main objective was to secure a comprehensive animal protection law for the first time in the Fifth Republic. Our first challenge was to convince animal NGOs to take political action and do so collectively. This was a crucial period for building shared momentum and establishing a strong political network from scratch. 

In 2021, we achieved a historic political victory with the adoption of the animal cruelty law in Parliament, which includes 38 measures to improve the protection of companion animals and animals in captivity, notably the end of mink farming for fur, the ban on wild animal performances in circuses and the inclusion of animal ethics in school curricula. Initiated by our team in 2018, it took three years of work to achieve its adoption. We have carried out numerous actions aimed at supporting and accelerating the legislative process.

Today, our challenge has shifted. Our goal is to empower animal NGOs to strengthen their advocacy efforts and increase their influence on political decision-making (e.g. through trainings and strategic advice). At the same time, we need to solidify the network we’ve carefully built while adapting to a rapidly changing political landscape.

In 2022, we entered our second five-year term. For the first time, animal welfare emerged in both the debates and the political parties’ platforms during the 2022 electoral campaigns, thanks to our Animal Commitment campaign which brought together 30 NGOs and successfully engaged 8 presidential candidates and 410 legislative candidates in favor of animals.

During the first five-year term, we leveraged a stable parliamentary majority to achieve a major milestone. However, the current, very unstable French political context demands a different approach. It’s no longer about long-term strategies but about being opportunistic and responsive. Amid political and agricultural crises, our priorities are twofold: to prevent setbacks and to secure targeted progress. We’ve learned to identify and seize every opportunity to incorporate animal protection measures into legislative agendas. This strategic agility allows us to continue driving impact, even in uncertain circumstances, as evidenced by our most recent achievements.

Adapting to Political Instability: Key Achievements for animals in 2024

In 2024, despite a year marked by political instability (dissolution of the National Assembly, government censure), CAP successfully adapted to secure progress while fighting against setbacks that threaten animals. This political instability makes long-term planning particularly challenging and requires a flexible approach, along with responsiveness to seize every legislative opportunity. This adaptation strategy allowed us to stand out, for example, by bringing a bill on bullfighting to the Senate agenda for the first time. This key milestone opened the door to breaking other political taboos in the legislature.

In the context of an agricultural crisis, marked by significant setbacks on environmental issues, we engaged in the Agricultural Orientation Bill alongside our NGO partners to defend measures promoting food transition (reintroducing a target of 10% agricultural land dedicated to legumes) and farmed animal welfare (47 amendments proposed by CAP were submitted to the Assembly). We also engaged in the Finance Bill, with 39 amendments submitted and 2 measures adopted in the Assembly, and narrowly avoided the adoption of gag amendments targeting animal protection associations, thanks to collective mobilization.

This year, we also mobilized NGOs and members of Parliament around four collective actions: an open letter signed by 69 MPs and 35 NGOs calling for a Senate debate on banning electric and choke collars; an op-ed urging legislative candidates to commit to animal welfare; an open letter to the government demanding the implementation of provisions related to captive wild animals; and a letter to the new Prime Minister requesting the creation of a Ministry for Animal Welfare.

In March 2024, we brought 53 animal protection NGOs from 11 European countries together in Paris for the first International Conference for Animals in Politics (ICAP) to initiate greater consultation and cooperation between animal NGOs, beyond national borders. During the European elections, we launched a new Animal Commitment campaign in collaboration with 29 NGOs and Eurogroup for Animals. Despite the challenging context, we secured commitments from 41 out of 81 elected French candidates to support our manifesto of 33 measures. These commitments are crucial for advancing animal welfare in the European Union and will strengthen our national advocacy efforts. 

Capitalizing on Opportunities to Advance Animal Welfare in 2025 

In 2025, we aim to capitalize on our long-standing advocacy efforts and established relationships with political actors to advance key topics for animals. Through our continuous political monitoring, we will identify and seize every opportunity to incorporate animal protection and food transition measures into legislative agendas. One key focus will be leveraging opposition days to introduce bills, including a proposal to combat trophy hunting.

We will maintain our efforts on the Agricultural Orientation Law to prevent setbacks in farmed animal welfare while encouraging France to transition toward plant-based food, inspired by the policies implemented in Denmark. Additionally, we will continue our work on the 2025 Finance Bill to allocate funds for animal protection. 

Additionally, we will multiply strategic legislative proposals to bring our issues into the political spotlight, building momentum for the next five-year term and ensuring that animal condition remains a priority on the political agenda. Should new legislative elections occur, we will relaunch the Animal Commitment campaign to elevate animal welfare in the political debate.

To support and encourage legislative initiatives, we plan to organize three key events bringing together NGOs and political decision-makers:

• February 2025: A focused event on animal experimentation to encourage parliamentarians to initiate new political actions on this issue. The event will feature expert scientists on alternative methods, members of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (OPECST), and our partner NGOs.
• June 2025: An event addressing the welfare of animals in captivity to urge parliamentarians to pressure the government, which continues to delay the publication of enforcement decrees for the law against animal cruelty. This delay risks prolonging the suffering of captive animals for several years.
• October 2025: A comprehensive event covering all issues related to animal welfare, including farming and food systems, wildlife, animal experimentation, captivity, bullfighting, education, governance, and companion animals. NGOs and parliamentarians will gather to collaborate on future actions through interactive workshops.

These events will serve as critical opportunities to strengthen collaboration between NGOs and policymakers, fostering concrete progress on animal welfare in 2025 and beyond.

Support our work: How Donations Drive Our Advocacy and Organizational Growth

For its 7th year of operation, CAP continued its development with a 42% increase in its budget, which led to the recruitment of an additional 1.5 FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) positions. The specificity of our work means that the vast majority (79%) of our annual budget (€295,341) is allocated to the human resources necessary to carry out our missions. We can now rely on a team of 6 employees and 24 volunteers to successfully fulfill our mission. 

35% of our annual budget is dedicated to supporting NGOs in order to strengthen their individual and collective impact with policymakers (strategy, training, tools, political monitoring), 24% is allocated to advocacy actions (political meetings and legislative issues), 17% goes towards organizing events that allow NGOs and MPs to meet regularly, 17% is dedicated to communication and fundraising to raise public awareness and support our development, and 7% covers our operational costs.

Your donations are the driving force behind our growth: they currently represent 57% of our annual budget (individual donations and sponsorship).The rest of our resources come from contributions from our partner NGOs and from occasional consulting assignments for international NGOs. In 2024, CAP received support from Animal Charity Evaluators and Animal Welfare Fund: this is an important recognition of our work within the animal rights movement. 

To secure the budget for our 8th year of action, we still need to raise €56,900 in donations (individual contributions and sponsorship) before summer. If we manage to raise an additional €55,000 per year, we will be able to hire an additional lobbyist to strengthen our efforts in favor of farmed animals and the food transition.

By supporting our organization, you are helping to build a new legal framework for a more animal-friendly society. To find out more about our recent achievements, please find our last activity report here. To support CAP its here. If you have any question about our work, feel free to contact us.