Wilberforce Institute

Background

The Wilberforce Institute started in 2024 to target political conservatives with messages to support the extreme animal rights movement–historically a far-left cause whose players support politicians on the left. 

The group is named after 19th Century British politician William Wilberforce, who is famous for opposing slavery. The name prompts an obvious question: Does the Wilberforce Institute think animals in zoos and on farms are morally equivalent to human slavery? 

Agenda and Associations

The Wilberforce Institute provides written commentary on issues including: Supporting state laws that drive up the cost of animal protein, supporting lab-grown meat, and opposing some forms of government wildlife management. 

People contributing to Wilberforce Institute include: 

• John Connor Cleveland, a former employee of the Humane Society of the United States and a former marijuana lobbyist. 
• Marty Irby, a former lobbyist for two animal rights groups. 
• Ann Porter, former general counsel for The Humane League, an animal liberation extremist group. 

Wilberforce has worked with the radical, PETA-linked Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. PCRM’s founder has wildly claimed that “meat consumption is just as dangerous to public health as tobacco use” and “to give a child animal products is a form of child abuse.”

Funding

The Wilberforce Institute was started under the “fiscal sponsorship” of a small libertarian group in New Mexico called the Southwest Public Policy Institute. Wilberforce was given independent tax-exempt status in 2025. 

The Greenbaum Foundation has donated to support the Wilberforce Institute. The Greenbaum Foundation is a major funder of vegan advocacy and animal rights groups, including The Humane League, The Accountability Board, and the so-called Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Greenbaum’s stated mission is “moving the world to whole foods, plant-based diets” (veganism).