Animal Libre exists to drive a sociocultural shift in which animals are seen as sentient beings with rights, not resources for human use. We transform how society sees animals, promoting empathy, respect and justice.
To defend animal rights through actions that open many ways to take part: free courses, investigations, advocacy campaigns and public complaints.
We mobilize people, authorities and institutions to promote a cruelty-free way of life.
A future in which animals are respected as individuals, free from exploitation and suffering.
We work to catalyze an unstoppable movement across Latin America, raising the impact of activism through strategic cooperation, policy advocacy and transformative education.
Six values shape how we work, who we partner with and how we tell what we do.
For every animal and every person, including those who don't think like us yet.
Rigorous, measurable, evidence-based work that matches what is at stake.
We look after every resource entrusted to us and account for how we use it.
We open paths so anyone can take part, from a course to a campaign.
Consistency between what we stand for and how we work, inside and out.
We look for new ways to tell what the industry hides: a good idea opens doors a statistic alone cannot.
No organization changes the system alone. We share strategy, tools and lessons with the movement, and our own identity was born from a creative partnership with Violet Studios.
A way to connect investigation, campaigns, education and advocacy. Results at each stage can inform the next.
We gather records and documents to make the conditions in which animals live visible.
We turn findings into campaigns that open public conversation.
We provide free tools so each person can move from awareness to daily action.
We take part in proposals and debates to improve animal protection rules.
And back to the start: each step forward and each question can lead to new research.
From the streets to Congress.
2010
Sixteen years of the same decision, each time with better tools.
Animal Libre was not born in an office but on the streets. Founded in 2010 by Mauricio Serrano, it emerged as an inevitable response to a normalized injustice.
We didn't start with a grand plan but with a question that changed everything: “If we see the suffering, why do we look away?” We decided to stop looking away and turn outrage into collective strength.
Passion gave us momentum; strategy gave us impact. Systemic change needed more than placards.
We evolved from denouncing to building legislative solutions. Today we bring the debate to parliamentary committees and show that empathy, well organized, becomes public policy.
Empathy, when it's organized, can be seen. This is what ours looks like.
Since 2010, the street has been our first stage. Handmade signs, thousands of people and one question: why do we look away?
Talks in auditoriums, printed materials and free courses, so no one has to start without help.
On the radio, in front of a camera or behind a stand. Every conversation is a door that opens.
From the halls of Congress to the delivery of signatures: we bring proposals and public voices into the debate.
The National Day against Rodeo was born in Chile and is now remembered in Brazil and in Copenhagen. We are one flock in three countries.
Eleven people in three countries. Each one holds up part of the flight: from undercover investigations and free education to laws in Congress.
Founder and executive director
Founded Animal Libre in 2010 in the streets of Chile. Today he coordinates regional strategy across three countries, international alliances and the organisation’s local projects.
Education director
Leads Cursos Veganos (+130,000 students), the Interdisciplinary Training Programme, and university partnerships.
Investigations director
Directs documentary and field investigations in Behind the Meat and Beneath the Cages to expose what industry hides.
Public policy director
Leads legislative advocacy in Congress for campaigns such as #NoEsDeporte and #MiMenúVegano.
Director of Marketing and Creativity
Designs public-impact narratives and campaigns like Choose Cruelty, reaching over 100 million views.
Brazil director
Leads Animal Libre’s campaigns, partnerships, and mobilization across Brazil.
Merch and events coordinator
Coordinates in-person events, outreach booths, and the Solidarity Shop collection.
Finance director
Oversees financial planning, auditing, and transparent accountability for every donated resource.
Fundraising coordinator
Coordinates fundraising and relationships with donors and foundations to sustain the organisation’s projects.
Legal advisor
Provides legal backing for public complaints, investigations, and legislative initiatives.
People and operations
Supports team well-being, internal processes, and administrative coordination.
The fight for animals recognizes no borders. We are active in three countries, coordinate regional campaigns and mobilize volunteers across the region.
Where we were born, in 2010.
Campaigns and education with our own team.
Our own team with local leadership.
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You found the protagonists' secret notebook
Entry 01 / 16
The industry calls them“Head of cattle”
Think of your best friend. When she's near, your body settles: you can feel it in your pulse.
The same happens to a cow. Next to her preferred companion, her heart rate and stress go down. She can live around twenty years, enjoys the morning sun and chooses whom to graze with.
The dairy industry makes her pregnant again and again so she keeps producing, and her calf is taken within hours or days. Then she calls for it. For hours. Sometimes for days.
The meat industry exploits her too, and in Chile young cattle end up in rodeo.
A head of cattle gets counted. Someone gets missed.
Sources: McLennan, Univ. of Northampton (2013); EFSA (2023)
Entry 02 / 16
The industry calls them“Live weight”
In one study, some pigs learned to use information from a mirror to find food hidden behind a barrier.
Pigs have also learned to move a joystick with their snout to play a simple video game. And when a mother nurses, she grunts softly to her piglets in a steady rhythm, like a song.
The meat industry calls him “live meat”. Many mothers spend their lives in crates where they cannot turn around, and their piglets are fattened to be killed a few months later.
A life of their own, far beyond what others gain from it.
Sources: Broom et al., Animal Behaviour (2009); Croney & Boysen, Frontiers in Psychology (2021)
Broom and colleagues (2009) observed pigs using reflected information to find food. This does not establish self-recognition; a later replication attempt found different results. These findings need to be read in context.
Entry 03 / 16
The industry calls them“Layer”
Before her chicks break out of the shell, she is already talking to them.
She has more than twenty distinct calls. One warns of danger from the air; another, of danger on the ground. And when her chicks are stressed, her heart speeds up too.
The egg industry bred her to lay close to 300 eggs a year. She usually lives in cages or overcrowded sheds, and her brothers are killed at birth because they don't lay eggs.
What she loves most is a dust bath in the sun.
“Layer” says what the industry wants from her. It doesn't say who she is.
Sources: Marino, Animal Cognition (2017); Edgar et al., Proc. R. Soc. B (2011)
Entry 04 / 16
The industry calls them“Biomass”
He is born in a river. He swims down to the sea, travels thousands of kilometres and returns, guided by smell, to the very river where he was born.
Fish have pain receptors and change their behaviour in response to harmful stimuli. They feel.
Chile is the world's second-largest salmon producer. Millions of fish live in high-density sea cages, with parasites, disease and mass die-offs. None of them will make that journey.
The industry doesn't count him: it weighs him. But every tonne is made of individuals.
Sources: Sneddon et al., Proc. R. Soc. B (2003); Seafood Watch
Entry 05 / 16
The industry calls them“Racing stock”
He is one of the fastest dogs in the world. And at home, one of the calmest.
When a dog and their human look into each other's eyes, oxytocin, the bonding hormone, rises in both. He also tells emotions apart in our faces and voices.
In Chile there are an estimated 300 racetracks, most of them unregulated. There his speed becomes a bet, and when he stops winning, he is often abandoned.
He runs for play and for joy. Never for a bet.
Sources: Nagasawa et al., Science (2015); Albuquerque et al., Biology Letters (2016); The Clinic (2024)
Entry 06 / 16
Hunters call them“Game”, “trophy”
Every year she flies thousands of kilometres. And when she returns, she often looks for the same nest.
Pairs raise their chicks together and feed them hundreds of times a day. She drinks in mid-flight, skimming the water.
Alita stands for all wild birds: those hunted for sport, those captured to be sold in cages and those losing their homes to deforestation and pesticides.
We chose her as our symbol: freedom in motion.
Sources: BirdLife International
Entry 07 / 16
Many call them“Stray”
Among many voices, he recognizes the one of the person who cares for him. And he tells his own name apart from other words.
If he looks at you and blinks slowly, he is telling you he trusts you.
Millions live on the streets for lack of sterilization and responsible care, exposed to abandonment and abuse.
“Stray” says where he lives. It doesn't say who he is.
Sources: Saito & Shinozuka, Animal Cognition (2013); Saito et al., Scientific Reports (2019); Humphrey et al., Scientific Reports (2020)
Entry 08 / 16
The industry calls them“Productive hive”
She finds a field of flowers and flies back to the hive with the news. She tells it by dancing: the dance shows distance and direction.
She can learn to recognize a human face and remember it days later. And her relatives, bumblebees, roll little balls without getting anything in return. They play.
Pesticides and the loss of wildflowers threaten her. Intensive beekeeping moves her from place to place and takes her food to sell honey.
A hive is not a factory. It is thousands of individuals who dance, learn and play.
Sources: von Frisch (Nobel 1973); Dona et al., Animal Behaviour (2022); Dyer et al., Journal of Experimental Biology (2005)
Entry 09 / 16
The industry calls them“Lab animal”
When he's happy, he jumps and twists in the air. That jump has a name: a binky.
He is very social: he grooms his companions and suffers when alone. He can live more than ten years and recognize the people who care for him.
He is one of the animals most used to test cosmetics and chemicals. The meat and fur industries exploit him too.
There is no room for a binky in a laboratory cage.
Sources: Humane Society International; RSPCA
Entry 10 / 16
The industry calls them“Pelt”
He plays. Alone and in groups, even as an adult.
Mother and father raise their cubs together. And he seems to orient himself by the Earth's magnetic field, as if he carried a compass inside.
On fur farms he spends his life in wire cages until he is killed for his coat.
His fur already has an owner: him.
Sources: Červený et al., Biology Letters (2011)
Entry 11 / 16
The industry calls them“Bycatch”
She can live more than fifty years. She thinks in decades.
When the time comes, she returns to lay her eggs on the beach where she hatched, guided by the Earth's magnetic field. Science recognizes a realistic possibility of conscious experience in reptiles.
Industrial fishing traps her in nets and on hooks. And at sea she mistakes plastic for food.
For the industry, an accident. For her, the only life she had.
Sources: Andrews et al., New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness (2024); Brothers & Lohmann, Current Biology (2015)
Entry 12 / 16
Breeders call them“Breeding stock”
When he sees someone he loves, he wags his tail more to the right.
He reads our emotions in our faces and voices at the same time. And when he looks into our eyes, his oxytocin rises, just like ours.
The puppy trade turns him into merchandise. Many end up on the streets once they are no longer puppies, and others on racetracks.
A specimen gets sold. Someone gets cared for.
Sources: Albuquerque et al., Biology Letters (2016); Nagasawa et al., Science (2015); Quaranta et al., Current Biology (2007)
Entry 13 / 16
Superstition calls him“Bad omen”
He flies almost silently. He turns his head up to 270 degrees and can find his way in total darkness by hearing alone.
His world is made of sounds we cannot perceive. And, like other birds, he has the neurological structures associated with conscious experience.
Poisons spread across the countryside reach him. Habitat loss and road traffic threaten him too.
He doesn't bring bad luck. We bring it to him.
Sources: Low et al., Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (2012); Payne, Journal of Experimental Biology (1971); Konishi, Scientific American (1973); The Barn Owl Trust
Entry 14 / 16
The industry calls them“Wool stock”
She recognizes around fifty faces of other sheep and remembers them for two years.
She can also learn to recognize human faces in photographs. And when she is stressed, seeing the face of a companion calms her.
The wool and meat industries shear her at production pace and kill her when she stops yielding.
She never forgets a face. The industry never looks at hers.
Sources: Kendrick et al., Nature (2001); Knolle et al., Royal Society Open Science (2017); da Costa et al., Proc. R. Soc. B (2004)
Entry 15 / 16
The industry calls them“Fattening fowl”
Just out of the egg, he already understands the concepts of same and different.
He bonds with whoever he sees when he hatches and follows them everywhere. He needs water not only to swim, but also to clean himself and to be well.
For foie gras he is force-fed through a tube. The down industry exploits him too.
He was born able to tell things apart. He deserves to be told apart.
Sources: Martinho & Kacelnik, Science (2016); Lorenz (1935)
Entry 16 / 16
The industry calls them“Seafood”
He has three hearts and some 500 million neurons, most of them in his arms. He changes colour and texture in an instant.
He opens jars, uses coconut shells as shelter and tells some people apart from others. When he is hurt, he tends the wound and avoids returning to where it hurt.
Fishing pulls him from the sea by the millions. And there are plans for industrial farms that would lock a solitary, curious animal in tanks.
For the industry, seafood. For science, one of the most astonishing minds in the ocean.
Sources: Birch et al., London School of Economics (2021); Crook, Current Biology (2021); Finn et al., Current Biology (2009); Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds (2016)
You found Alita's secret file
Brand rationale
A logo can be decoration or a statement. Ours is a real animal whose life looks a lot like what we do. These are the reasons behind every stroke.
01She crosses borders
The Chilean swallow breeds in Chile and Argentina, and when the cold arrives many fly north, as far as southern Brazil. Her route traces the map where we work. Borders do not exist for her. Nor do they for our cause.
Source: Birds of the World, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Tachycineta leucopyga)
02She changes course
Barn swallows that breed in North America travel to Argentina every year. In the 1980s, some stayed to nest near Buenos Aires and shifted their whole calendar by six months. Even the oldest habits can be transformed: our work starts from that certainty.
Source: Winkler et al., Current Biology (2017)
03She flies in a flock
Swallows migrate, roost and feed in groups, and pairs raise their chicks together. A flock reaches places a single bird never would. That is how we see the movement: people, organizations and allies moving in the same direction.
Source: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
04She drinks in mid-flight
The swallow drinks and feeds in mid-flight, skimming the water without stopping. That is the energy we look for in every campaign: moving forward, measuring and adjusting in motion.
Source: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
05She always returns
Many swallows return to the same place every year, even to the same nest. Sailors tattooed one as a promise to come home. Since 2010 we keep returning to the same question: what more can we do for animals.
Source: BirdLife International; tradición marinera
06She was always there
07The colour of her wings
#7E17BEConviction: the base colour, calm and firm.#E93B24Urgency: where the idea becomes action.#9C3733Heritage: it comes from the first logotype.#2B2525The seriousness of evidence.#F3F3F3Air: room to think.08Six words to fly
And a way of saying it: impactful, accessible, minimalistic, powerful, professional and clean. That is how our brand manual puts it.
09Made as a flock
Animal Libre's concept, logo and visual system were born in collaboration with Violet Studios, a studio that offers free graphic design to organizations working for animals. They gave craft, vision and time so our identity could live up to the cause.
Visit Violet Studios10Creativity is activism too
A good idea can change how someone looks at an animal. We share what we learn at conferences like AVA, lend tools, collaborate with other organizations and celebrate when someone else's campaign works. The movement grows when creativity circulates.
We'll write to you as soon as the kit is ready. Meanwhile, you can start with a free course.
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