Historical perspectives on human-animal relationships reveal how welfare norms have evolved and what drives moral circle expansion.
The history of human concern for animals reveals both how far we have come and how much welfare norms can change with shifts in knowledge and culture. Ancient arguments for animal welfare from Pythagoras and Plutarch anticipated modern welfare science by millennia. The acceleration of welfare reform in the 19th and 20th centuries followed both scientific discoveries about animal sentience and cultural shifts in how animals were viewed. Understanding this history provides perspective on current welfare debates and confidence that further progress is possible.