Our Leadership
Change hearts, change the world.
Milo Runkle founded Mercy For Animals in 1999 on a simple yet powerful truth: Every living being deserves dignity and compassion.
After a farmed-animal cruelty case—and the judge’s appalling ruling—shook his rural Ohio town, 15-year-old Milo recognized the urgent need for change in a food system that considers extreme cruelty to billions of animals business as usual. Milo served Mercy For Animals for nearly 20 years and continues to pioneer change for farmed animals.
Leah Garcés took on the mantle of Milo’s legacy as our president in 2018.
Our CEO, Leah Garcés
Leah Garcés spent her childhood exploring the swamps by her home in central Florida. She observed the rich lives of wild ducks who nested in her mother’s flower beds. These intelligent, sensitive birds taught Leah that all animals are individuals worthy of protection.
By the time she was 30, Leah had witnessed every kind of animal cruelty imaginable—from bears suffering at bile farms in Vietnam to stray dogs on the streets of India.
In her quest to make the greatest impact for animals, one system stood out for harming the most animals and causing the most suffering. From then on, she devoted her career to ending factory farming.
After decades of leadership in animal protection, Leah joined Mercy For Animals as president in 2018.
Leah Garcés recognizes factory farming as a global crisis we must view through a wide-angle lens.
—Moby, Grammy Award-Nominated Musician
Connect with Leah
Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming
By Leah Garcés
A brilliant, essential read, clear-eyed and kind, showing how animal agriculture is cruel not just to farm animals but to farmers, farmworkers, and the land, and how there’s a happier, gentler path forward for all of us. It comes from one of the world’s authorities on transforming what we eat and how we eat.
—Annie Lowrey, author of Give People Money
Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry
By Leah Garcés
This book will change the way you see chicken–and our entire food system. Garcés’s determination to reform one of the world’s largest industries is nothing short of astounding. She is a force!
—Rose Marcario, CEO and President of Patagonia
Turning Adversaries into Allies
TEDxSeattle
November 2019
As she engaged with farmers, corporate executives, and others who did not share her vision for animals, Leah found opportunities to create meaningful change through dialogue and common ground, challenging the “us versus them” framework in service of progress for animals.
Our Founder, Milo Runkle
For more than 20 years, Milo defended animals as founder, president, and board chair of Mercy For Animals. He proved, time and again, to be a pioneer of our movement—always innovating to create a more compassionate food system.
During his time at Mercy For Animals, Milo moved thousands of advocates to join us as staff and volunteers who together helped secure landmark farmed-animal protection laws and historic corporate animal welfare commitments. His legacy of compassion is sure to motivate many thousands more. To learn more about Milo’s work and Mercy For Animals, order Milo’s book, Mercy For Animals: One Man’s Quest to Inspire Compassion and Improve the Lives of Farm Animals, today.
Milo’s story is proof that one person truly can change the world.
—Moby, Grammy Award-Nominated Musician
Mercy For Animals Book
Discover Milo’s extraordinary journey in his book, Mercy For Animals: One Man’s Quest to Inspire Compassion and Improve the Lives of Farm Animals.
Mercy For Animals not only exposes the almost unbelievable cruelty suffered by the billions of animals raised in factory farms but explains what can—and must—be done to change things. Please read it and recommend it to all your friends.
—Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE; Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute; and U.N. Messenger of Peace
Our People
Meet the passionate individuals who make this happen.
Get info about volunteer opportunities, Mercy For Animals news, and more.
Thank you for signing up!