The science of animal welfare is rapidly advancing, with new methods for assessing subjective animal experience, quantifying suffering, and identifying the most effective interventions for improving lives at scale.
Animal welfare science has matured from a discipline focused mainly on preventing obvious suffering to one capable of assessing positive emotional states, quantifying subjective experience indirectly, and comparing interventions by their cost-effectiveness. These advances create opportunities to dramatically improve the lives of billions of animals by directing resources toward the highest-impact interventions. Supporting rigorous welfare science, funding the application of cost-effectiveness analysis to animal welfare, and integrating welfare science into policy and industry practice are the most important meta-level contributions individuals and institutions can make to animal welfare.