Welfare impact assessment is an emerging tool for systematically evaluating how policies, projects, and practices affect animal lives. Understanding this tool helps advocates use evidence effectively.
Animal welfare impact assessment is an emerging practice that brings systematic analysis to policy and project decisions affecting animals. Traditional environmental assessment processes focus on biodiversity and ecosystem services, often neglecting individual animal welfare. Dedicated welfare impact assessment methodologies assess the number of animals affected, the nature and severity of welfare impacts, and the duration of effects — enabling comparison across different policy options. The UK Animal Sentience Committee represents an institutional embodiment of this approach, requiring government departments to consider how their policies affect animal welfare. As welfare science develops better quantification methods, welfare impact assessment will become an increasingly powerful tool for both advocates and policymakers.