New technologies including AI cameras, wearable sensors, and automated scoring systems can monitor farm animal welfare at scale in real time.
Technology offers the possibility of closing the gap between welfare claims and welfare realities on farms. AI systems that detect lameness, distress vocalizations, and abnormal behavior in real time can flag problems that human inspection would miss or that only occur when inspectors are absent. Mandatory CCTV with welfare monitoring in slaughterhouses has already identified practices that are illegal but routine. Technology cannot substitute for better standards but can dramatically improve compliance monitoring.