Lasting animal welfare improvement requires cultural change in how societies relate to and value other species, a process that is slow but demonstrably underway across many human communities.
Animal welfare improvement ultimately depends on cultural change: on shifts in how people think about and value the lives of other species. Legal and regulatory change follows and reinforces cultural change rather than leading it. The historical trajectory of animal welfare is genuinely encouraging: practices that were routine a century ago — baiting, dogfighting, casual cruelty — are now illegal and culturally unacceptable in most countries. The direction of travel is toward greater moral concern for animal welfare, though the pace is insufficient given the scale of current suffering. Intergenerational change, media representation, education, and direct experience of animals all drive cultural evolution toward greater welfare awareness and concern.