Measuring progress in animal welfare across species and production systems requires validated metrics and ambitious but achievable targets that can drive continued improvement.
Animal welfare progress is real and measurable across many domains: cage-free transitions, farrowing crate phase-outs, surgical procedure pain relief requirements, fish sentience recognition, and sea turtle bycatch reduction all represent genuine improvements that have reduced suffering for significant numbers of animals. Measuring this progress rigorously is essential both to document what works and to identify where effort should be focused next. The scale of the challenge — 80 billion farm animals produced annually — requires ambitious targets, sustained advocacy, and investment in the science that enables evidence-based improvement strategies.