Animal welfare legislation has advanced significantly in many countries over recent decades, but enormous gaps remain. Understanding the global landscape helps advocates prioritize where change is most needed.
Global animal welfare legislation is improving, but progress is uneven and often slow relative to the scale of animal suffering it addresses. The most impactful advocacy work focuses on closing the gap between law on paper and practice on the ground, extending welfare protections to species and situations currently excluded, and building the enforcement capacity to make legislation effective. International standards and trade requirements are increasingly powerful levers for welfare improvement in countries with weaker domestic frameworks.