Children who develop empathy toward animals grow into adults more likely to support animal welfare. Early welfare education is one of the highest-leverage interventions for long-term change in attitudes and behaviour.
Animal welfare education for children is both a welfare intervention and an investment in the moral community of the future. Children who learn to see animals as individuals with interests, rather than objects for entertainment or utility, are more likely to make welfare-conscious choices as consumers, voters, and parents. The educational approach matters — rote rule-following is less effective than developing genuine empathy and moral reasoning. The RSPCA PSHE resources and Humane Education programmes that engage with animal stories, direct experience, and ethical dilemmas have shown the most enduring impacts in follow-up studies.