A global overview of farmed animal welfare legislation highlights significant disparities between countries and the regulatory gaps that advocacy efforts are working to close.
Global farmed animal welfare legislation is a patchwork of progress and persistent gaps. The EU leads in comprehensive species-specific regulation but enforcement varies widely between member states. The US, despite producing billions of farm animals, has federal protections that exclude chickens and turkeys from the Humane Slaughter Act and provide minimal protection for farmed animals generally. State ballot initiatives have been the most effective mechanism for US welfare progress (California Proposition 12, Massachusetts Question 3). International trade agreements increasingly include animal welfare provisions as both countries and consumers demand alignment with welfare standards. The most significant legislative gap globally is the lack of any welfare protection for fish in most jurisdictions.