Ten years ago, Mercy For Animals India began a journey rooted in a simple but powerful belief: Animals deserve compassion, protection, and a life free from cruelty.
A decade later, that belief has inspired government action, challenged corporations, brought animal protection into cultural conversations, encouraged more compassionate food choices, and mobilized people across India to speak up for farmed animals.
None of this happened alone.
Every advocate who took action. Every supporter who shared a campaign. Every public figure who lent their voice. Every policymaker who listened. Every institution that reconsidered its practices.
Together, they made progress possible.
As Mercy For Animals India celebrates its 10th anniversary, we’re looking back at some of the defining moments that show what a decade of undeniable mercy can accomplish.
1. Challenging Cruel Confinement of Pigs
One of Mercy For Animals India’s most sustained advocacy efforts has focused on ending the use of gestation and farrowing crates, which severely restrict the movement of mother pigs.
Over the years, advocacy from Mercy For Animals India and partner groups spurred more than 20 states into action.
State Governments including Delhi, Gujarat, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Sikkim, and Assam issued direct restrictions against these cruel confinement systems, while other states and institutions—such as Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Telangana, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, and Punjab— issued recommendations, inspections, warnings, or assurances related to their use.
Each action represented another step toward a future in which pigs are treated with greater compassion.
2. Expanding the Fight for Pig Welfare
Our work for pigs didn’t stop with crates.
Mercy For Animals India has also urged governments to address swill feeding—the practice of feeding food waste to pigs.
In 2025, Gujarat issued an advisory aimed at curbing swill feeding and improving pig welfare, and Uttarakhand took action to prohibit the practice.
Then in 2026, following a demand from Mercy For Animals India, the Nagaland government issued a statewide advisory against feeding food waste to pigs.
Progress builds on progress.
3. Holding Corporations Accountable
Promises to animals matter only when companies keep them.
In 2025, Mercy For Animals India challenged Marriott over its cage-free egg commitment through a campaign that brought advocates into the streets in Goa, Chandigarh, and Kolkata.
Activists even donned bathrobes to deliver a message that was difficult to miss: Companies must be held accountable for the animal welfare commitments they make.
The campaign also called on actor Kareena Kapoor Khan to use her influence to encourage Marriott to make progress.
4. Making the Suffering of Hens Visible
Most people will never see the conditions endured by hens confined in cages.
So advocates brought those conditions into public view.
For World Egg Day in 2022, women activists confined themselves in cages to depict the suffering of laying hens. In 2024, “caged hens” once again brought the hidden cruelty of the egg industry before the public.
These demonstrations transformed something hidden behind closed doors into something people could see—and talk about.
5. Bringing Compassion Into Popular Culture
Culture can change how people see animals.
Over the past decade, actors, athletes, advocates, and other public figures have helped Mercy For Animals India bring animal protection to new audiences.
John Abraham encouraged people to Be Nice to Animals and later urged the government to prohibit gestation crates.
Sonakshi Sinha asked people to #ChooseLove.
Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik spoke up for animals.
Daksha Nagarkar championed plant-based eating through Powered by Veggies.
Their voices helped carry a message of compassion far beyond the animal protection movement.
6. Exposing the Reality of Dairy
Some of the most important conversations begin by showing people what they rarely see.
Member of Parliament and animal advocate Maneka Gandhi joined Mercy For Animals India for the public service announcement The Dark Truth of the Dairy Industry, highlighting the experiences of cows, buffaloes, and calves raised for milk.
By bringing these realities into public conversation, the campaign encouraged people to reconsider the systems behind familiar foods.
7. Helping Plant-Based Choices Reach More People
Creating a kinder food system also means making compassionate choices easier.
Following an appeal from Mercy For Animals India, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India shared advisories encouraging plant-based eating through its #EatRight campaign.
Mercy For Animals India has also inspired colleges to offer plant-based drinks in their cafeterias and worked with public figures to show audiences how delicious and accessible plant-based eating can be.
Every meal presents an opportunity to choose compassion.
8. Building Partnerships for Animals
Progress grows when organizations work together.
In 2022, Fish Welfare Initiative and Mercy For Animals India signed a memorandum of understanding, reflecting an effort to expand collaboration and attention to the welfare of aquatic animals.
Partnerships like these strengthen a movement capable of reaching more animals and creating change at greater scale.
9. Creating a Community of Advocates
Policy victories and public campaigns tell only part of Mercy For Animals India’s story.
Behind every achievement are people.
Volunteers, activists, supporters, partners, influencers, and compassionate community members have shown up again and again—from volunteer events and public demonstrations to digital campaigns and everyday acts of advocacy.
That collective action is the heart of this anniversary.
10. Proving What Is Possible
Perhaps the most important victory isn’t a single policy, campaign, partnership, or headline.
It’s what they demonstrate together.
Change is possible.
A government can reconsider how animals are treated. A company can be challenged to fulfill its promises. A celebrity can introduce millions of people to an issue they may never have considered. A demonstration can make hidden suffering visible. And one compassionate choice can inspire another.
Ten years of Mercy For Animals India have shown what happens when people refuse to accept cruelty as inevitable.
And we’re only getting started.
The next decade will bring new challenges. It will also bring new opportunities to transform our food system, strengthen protections for farmed animals, inspire compassionate choices, and build a world where animals are treated with the respect they deserve.
To every person who has taken action with us over the past 10 years: thank you.
These victories belong to you too.
A Decade of Undeniable Mercy.
A decade for animals. A lifetime for change.
