Assessing the evidence for global progress in animal welfare across sectors and identifying where the most significant welfare gaps persist.
Global animal welfare progress is real but profoundly uneven. In some sectors and countries, welfare science has been translated into legislation, certification, and industry practice that meaningfully reduces suffering. In others — particularly intensive poultry production in lower-income countries, wild-catch fisheries, and emerging aquaculture industries in the Global South — welfare standards barely exist and the scale of unaddressed suffering is enormous. The most impactful levers for global welfare improvement include stronger international trade standards that embed welfare requirements in food imports, capacity building for welfare science in lower-income countries, and consumer demand signals that incentivize welfare investment across supply chains. Optimism about progress must be balanced with realism about the scale of what remains to be achieved.