Erica Meier

Erica Meier is an American animal rights advocate and was the president and executive director of Animal Outlook (previously known as Compassion Over Killing) from 2005 to 2021.

Early life and career beginnings Meier's father owned a small meat-packing company. However, her strong connection to animals made her uncomfortable with eating meat. In high school, she learned more about how meat production can be harmful to the planet, and she decided to become vegetarian. When she later learned about animal mistreatment on factory farms and the conditions for dairy cows and egg-laying hens, she became vegan. This led her to switch her career interests from environmental protection to animal protection. She also persuaded vegetarian brands Boca Burger, Lightlife, Morningstar Farms, and Quorn to eliminate or reduce their use of eggs in their products. She also appeared in major news outlets including CNN, ABC's Nightline, the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, and Reuters.

Meier provided information used in Mark Hawthorne's book Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism, and she has been featured in documentary films, such as Speciesism: The Movie (2013), Meat the Future (2020), and Meat Me Halfway (2021).

Meier is a frequent contributor to HuffPost and VegNews, and she has written for The New York Times.

Personal life Meier has been vegan since college.

In 2013, Meier was inducted into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame.