Taking stock of genuine progress in animal welfare helps identify what works, builds momentum for further improvement, and provides honest accountability for remaining challenges.
Genuine progress in animal welfare is real and measurable, even as enormous challenges remain. The decline in shelter euthanasia, elimination of battery cages in major markets, reductions in cosmetic animal testing, and growing consumer rejection of the most extreme confinement practices represent real improvements in animal welfare achieved through sustained advocacy, policy change, and market pressure. This progress demonstrates that change is achievable and provides models for approaches that work. Honest accounting of progress also requires acknowledging where improvement has been slowest — fish welfare, insect welfare, wild animal welfare, and the welfare of the billions of animals still in intensive farming systems — and maintaining urgency about addressing these remaining challenges with the same strategic energy that drove earlier victories.