The Animal Freedom Library is a free digital archive of grassroots animal freedom publications: the newsletters, magazines, zines and books that activists produced for themselves, from the first issue of The Vegan News in 1944 to the campaigns of the 2020s.
Most of this material was printed in small runs, photocopied, passed hand to hand and never collected by libraries. The aim of the archive is to keep it together, readable and easy to find, so that the history of the movement is not lost.
Where it comes from
The Talon Conspiracy
The now-defunct project that first gathered and scanned much of this material. The library builds on its work.
Hunt Saboteurs Association
The archive of HOWL, the HSA’s magazine since 1973, is republished with the HSA’s kind permission. See the HSA’s own archive.
Mike Huskisson
Veteran hunt saboteur and anti-hunt campaigner who scanned the HOWL archive, which is named in his honour. acigawis.org.uk
We are grateful to everyone who saved, scanned and shared these publications over the years.
Using the library
- Browse every publication on the home page, and narrow the list by decade, country or topic.
- Search for a person, place, campaign or phrase. The search looks inside the text of every issue as well as the publication descriptions, and tells you which issue mentions it.
- Read any issue by clicking its cover. It opens in the library’s reader, where you can page through it, zoom in or download the PDF.
Most issues are scans of old photocopies, so the searchable text is produced by automatic text recognition and will contain mistakes, especially on faint or handwritten pages. If a search finds nothing, try a shorter word or a different spelling.
A historical record
These publications are reproduced for historical reference and research. They reflect the views, language and tactics of their time, which are not always those of the library, and they are not intended as guides for contemporary campaigning. In a small number of publications, sections have been removed.
Help us fill the gaps
Many runs are incomplete. If you have issues that are missing here, better copies of ones that are, or know more about a publication – who made it, where and when – please tell us through our contribution form. We would love to hear from you.
Corrections and removal requests
If something here is wrong, or if you created or appear in material in the archive and have concerns about it being online, please email us and we will look at it promptly.