Gene Baur is an activist, best-selling author, and president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, the first animal rescue organization dedicated to farmed animals. He is vegan and has been at the forefront of animal rights since he began the Sanctuary in 1986.
Gene Baur grew up in Hollywood, California, and attended Loyola High School in Los Angeles. He earned a bachelor's degree in Sociology from Cal State Northridge, where he also worked part-time jobs such as dishwasher, day laborer, bartender, and teacher. During his college years, he volunteered at organizations helping children with terminal illnesses and abused adolescents, and participated in human rights, animal rights, consumer, and environmental organizations.
In the 1980s, Baur began investigating factory farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses, which led him to feel that the conditions he observed were unacceptable. This experience motivated him to create Farm Sanctuary. The sanctuary's first rescued animal was a downed sheep found on a pile of dead animals behind Lancaster stockyards in 1986.
Baur's investigative work and advocacy efforts have earned international media coverage, including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times. He has also received recognition for his work, including TIME's "conscience of the food movement" title.
Gene Baur holds a Master's degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University, which he obtained to better understand factory farming. He has testified before local, state, and federal legislative bodies, and has appeared on various expert panels.
Baur played a key role in the passage of several animal-protection ordinances, including a California law banning the production and sale of foie gras, and a Florida initiative banning gestation crates. He was also instrumental in passing a Chicago ordinance banning the sale of foie gras, and a ballot measure in Arizona banning gestation crates and veal crates.
Gene Baur and Farm Sanctuary were key sponsors of a California initiative to ban veal crates, gestation crates, and battery cages, which passed in 2008 with over 63% of the vote.
Baur has written a book, Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food, which appeared on the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe bestseller lists, and was named to Booklist's Top 10 Sci-Tech Books: 2008. He also appears in the documentary film Peaceable Kingdom, which was made about Farm Sanctuary and people who work or visit there.
Gene Baur's work has been recognized with several awards, including the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey, which has also been awarded to notable figures such as Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa, Ram Dass, and Pete Seeger.
