WASHINGTON, D.C. — The farm livestock industry has been paying much more attention to the animal rights movement in recent years. That’s what it was doing this summer when the Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA) sent interns to the 34th annual Animal Rights National Conference July 30 to Aug. 2 near Washington, D.C.

The interns reported on what they’d seen and heard at the conference, which was hosted by The Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), a nonprofit group that describes itself as working to end the use of animals for food through public education and grassroots activism.

AAA produced a report on the conference, which included other prominent animal rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Last Chance for Animals, Farm Sanctuary, Animal Liberation Front and Compassion Over Killing.

“Sending eyes and ears to events like the Animal Rights Conference to gather information about what activist groups are planning and saying behind closed doors is very important in order for the industry to better understand the animal rights movement and how it affects their business,” said AAA President and CEO Kay Johnson Smith.

“By attending these events we can more effectively counter their misleading campaigns against animal agriculture.”

Smith also said the 40-page report on the conference, produced by AAA, captures the “true goals” of the leading animal rights organizations, “which is to put animal agriculture out of business.”

In a separate interview, AAA spokeswoman Hannah Thompson said FARM is perceived as a particularly radical animal rights group; however, most of the other groups share the same basic goals as FARM, she said.

“The goal of all the groups is to eliminate the use of animals in any way,” Thompson said. “FARM appears more radical, but all the animal rights groups have the same basic goal of eliminating animal agriculture and making domestic livestock go away. HSUS has been trying to distance itself from some of the more extreme animal rights groups.”

Vice President of Farm Animal Protection at HSUS Paul Shapiro said some of the speakers at the conference “feel that way,” but others who don’t feel that way have spoken there before, as well. For example, Executive Director of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame Dan Murphy has spoken at the conference previously.

Shapiro said he gave a speech at the conference about “ag-gag” laws. According to the AAA’s report on the conference, he “grazed the surface of comparing the animal rights movement to that of women’s rights, the Civil Rights movement and the LGBT movement.”

Thompson said the interns appreciated the opportunity to go to the conference and see what was going on. The conference was open to the public, she said, so there was no need for the interns to pretend they were someone else. They registered as students, went to the workshops and learned what they could.

The overall theme of the conference was that activists need to try to achieve small, incremental goals. “These animal rights groups know that it’s difficult to try and convince people to become vegan right away,” Thompson said. “The general public enjoys eating meat, milk and eggs.”

A vegan is not only vegetarian, but also won’t eat dairy products, such as milk and eggs. Thompson said the animal rights movement is taking credit for accomplishments such as persuading McDonald’s to get its eggs from chickens that are raised cage-free. She questions whether the company would be able to get all the eggs it needs from this source alone. The phase-in period for this new policy is 10 years, she stated.

To request a copy of the entire report on the conference, email Thompson at hthompson@animalagalliance.org